Gundam SEED Evolution
by Enchanter468
Summary: Sequel to Second Chance.  One year after the first Bloody Valentine War, Kira is abducted by unknown forces.  What do the kidnappers want with the Ultimate Coordinator, and what are their wider plans?  KxF, AxC
1. Shattered Peace

Disclaimer: Dr. Elizabeth Sanford, as well as Commander Alexander Stanton and his team are my creations. I don't own _Gundam SEED_ or any of its characters

This fic follows the story "Second Chance." You may feel free to read that if you wish, but even if you don't this shouldn't be too confusing...hopefully.

Gundam SEED Evolution

Chapter 1: Shattered Peace

* * *

**September 10, CE 72**

* * *

Flay could tell that she was making Kira nervous. They had just left Asira Memorial Hospital and were heading across the parking lot toward his car, and he kept looking at her as they walked.

The day itself was quite pleasant. It was just past noon and the sun was beating down, but the hospital was fairly near to the coast of Orb's central island, and there was enough of a sea breeze to keep them cool. Flay knew it wasn't the conditions that were bothering Kira; it was the way she winced slightly whenever she had to place weight on her right leg.

"I'm okay," she said, reaching out and giving her boyfriend's hand a gentle squeeze. "Really, I am." Flay had spent the last three days in the hospital undergoing treatment to reverse the damage to her nervous system. It was just one more in a series of trips she and Kira had been making for a little under a year now, but he still tended to hover over her when they left, as though he expected something to go wrong. This time was no different. Her broken bones had healed, her scars and burns had been removed, and after this treatment, she was able to walk again, but Kira was still stressing over her.

"Does it hurt?" he asked.

"No," she said quickly.

"No secrets, Flay." She couldn't remember which of them had started using the phrase, but Flay didn't find it silly anymore. The beginning of her relationship with Kira had been so marred by her own deceit and hidden agendas that it had very nearly cost them everything. Kira didn't hold her past actions against her, and Flay was more grateful for that than he could know. Nevertheless, they had come to a sort of quiet agreement after the war. Never again would they keep anything from each other, no matter how small it might seem.

"It hurts a little," she said with an apologetic smile. "It feels kind of like pins and needles, and it gets a little too intense when I take a step with this foot." The doctors had explained that the sensation was a side effect of the treatment: her newly regenerated nerves were firing as they came online, or something like that; the prickling feeling was supposed to die down after an hour or so.

"Come here," Kira said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her in close. Understanding what he wanted her to do, Flay wrapped an arm around Kira's waist and leaned against him, taking some of the weight off of her complaining leg. She lifted her head and kissed his cheek.

"What was that for?" Kira asked. Flay smiled.

"For being here," she replied.

"Oh, it-it's nothing," Kira said quickly, blushing.

Flay loved that she could still make him blush.

They were almost at the end of the parking lot now, and as they reached Kira's car, he looked at her again.

"So, this was your last procedure," he said. "What do you want to do to celebrate? We could go out to dinner, or see a movie…" Flay gave Kira a sly smile, and leaned in until her lips were almost touching his ear.

"I can think of something we haven't done in a long time," she whispered, causing Kira to pull back quickly.

"Well, but, I mean…you're still in some pain and I…well I just," he stammered in response.

"Well, I guess you'll just have to be gentle with me," Flay cooed, and then giggled when Kira's face turned as red as her hair. He flinched abruptly, and Flay backed away from him just a bit. "Relax," she said, gesturing at the ten or so other people in the parking lot. "They're not listening, so you shouldn't be embarrassed…" Flay trailed off as she suddenly felt Kira lean his full weight against her, and saw the confused, frightened look on his face.

"Flay?" He slumped to his knees, and she saw that there was something on his right shoulder: an inch-long, cigar-shaped metal thing with fins. Flay looked back toward the hospital; she'd have to run back, get someone and—

A car halfway across the lot exploded, the fireball tossing the vehicle nearly fifteen feet into the air. The blast was followed by an eruption of automatic fire, and a young couple about twenty feet from Flay was cut down, their bodies riddled with bullets in a fraction of a second. Tearing her gaze away from the gruesome sight, Flay caught sight of the attackers.

The main road ran in front of the hospital, with several large palm trees planted in the median to lend a more natural feel to the glass and concrete environment. On the right side of the building, another street separated the parking lot from a skyscraper of some sort. On the left, however, the hospital and the adjacent building were divided by a line of planted trees, oak or something similar. A group of six people had emerged from the tree-line, clad in long, dark grey coats.

Four of them, men in their early twenties, held assault rifles, and were busy spraying bullets into the parking lot. One of the others, a woman about the same age, had short, dark blue hair that flopped over on one side and nearly covered her right eye. She wasn't shooting anything at the moment, but she held some sort of modified pistol. The last member of the group was a man in his early thirties with black hair and ice-blue eyes. He shouted something to the four with the machine guns and hefted some sort of rocket launcher over his shoulder, firing it at a car over a hundred feet away. The projectile struck the car and ignited another vicious explosion, hurling the car away and showering the area with twisted metal and glass fragments.

Moving on her hands and knees, Flay scrambled back towards Kira, her heart beating so hard she thought it would burst from her chest. Kira lay flat on the ground now, unmoving. His eyes were shut, and when she lifted his head to try to wake him, Flay discovered to her horror that his brunette hair was sticky with blood.

_He must have hit his head when he fell._ She looked around, her eyes watering from the smoke and fumes from the burning cars, and saw the blue-haired girl coming toward them. Flay didn't know how to fight, and she knew that while help must be on its way, it wouldn't arrive in time. Trembling with fear, she still managed to turn around and put herself between Kira and the stranger. The blue-haired woman laughed, a sound of surprise and genuine amusement, her golden eyes shining in the sunlight.

"That's really cute," she said, reaching out and grabbing Flay's shoulder. "Now come on, Red, get out of my way." Shoving the frightened teenager away, she grabbed Kira by an arm and hefted him over her shoulder, turning and heading back toward her comrades.

"No, you leave him alone!" Flay ran up behind the blue-haired woman and pounded a balled up fist against the kidnapper's back, trying to do something, anything, to keep her from taking Kira. The assailant whirled on Flay, eyes flashing. She pointed the specialized handgun at the redhead and fired.

Instead of a muzzle flare and a bang, there was only a popping sound and a puff of compressed air. The weapon discharged another of the inch-long darts that had been used on Kira, striking Flay just above the collarbone. The sharp sting and the fact that she wasn't dead stunned her for a moment, and the kidnapper took the opportunity to kick Flay in the chest, knocking her flat on her back.

She could see the older woman and her companions taking Kira away, and Flay tried to get up; tried to get back to the hospital for help, but she suddenly found that she couldn't. It was as though all of her blood was quickly turning to lead, making every part of her heavier by the second. Flay couldn't stand, and a second later she couldn't even move. She could only watch the assailants retreat back the way they had come, and then she lost consciousness.

* * *

When she woke, Flay was in a hospital bed once again, and for one blissful moment she thought the whole attack had been a nightmare, that she had just finished with her therapy and that Kira would be arriving to pick her up soon.

When Flay looked around, however, she saw that she wasn't alone. There was a young man, maybe five or six years older than she was, lying in the bed next to her. A respirator was helping him breathe, and bandages, stained with the blood they had absorbed, covered most of the man's exposed chest. Flay was confused for a moment, until she remembered the man as the boyfriend, or maybe husband, in the couple she had seen gunned down in the parking lot. Her view of the young man was momentarily blocked as a nurse, a stout woman in her late thirties, came in between him and Flay. When the redhead sat up, the nurse must have heard the sheets rustling, because she turned and gave Flay a concerned look.

"Are you hurt?" she asked quickly. Flay shook her head, and the nurse turned away almost instantly; apparently, a sort of triage was in effect, and the uninjured were obviously a low priority. When she saw that Flay was getting out of the bed, however, the older woman sighed and moved to stop her. "Stay put. I'm sure the police are going to want to talk to you."

For a long moment, Flay seriously considered it. After all, when she was on the _Archangel_, she had always been happy to let someone more capable take over. Flay had very little confidence in herself, and she didn't want any part of combat, so she would retreat to her quarters, where she would hide until Kira had slain all the enemies. She could always depend on someone else to protect her.

But Flay had also made a promise back then, even if it was meant only as a way to make Kira fight harder at the time. The police would conduct their job well, but they had a lot of other things to do, and that knowledge made Flay nervous.

Her decision made, Flay rolled out of bed and started walking. As she got up, something metallic dropped to the floor, and Flay recognized it as the dart she had been hit with. The thing must have fallen off her when she was being carried in. She picked the projectile up and held onto it as she walked away. The nurse shot her a look, but she apparently had far more serious cases to worry about, and let her go. Her room was on the first floor, and Flay didn't have to walk long before she reached the lobby. Luckily, she had changed out of her hospital gown when Kira and she had left earlier, and was still wearing her pink blouse and white skirt; she didn't look like someone leaving before she was supposed to, and no one stopped her on her way out.

Flay traveled a little way down the street, walking quickly, until she came to an auto-taxi station. As soon as one of the empty, computer-controlled automobiles pulled up, she got in and opened up a list of possible destinations on the touch-screen that sat where a steering wheel would be in a normal car. Kira had brought his parents to visit Flay while she was in the hospital months ago, so she did know them, but Flay also knew that the only Yamato family member who could really help her wasn't at Kira's home.

From her possible destinations, Flay selected the Orb Parliament House.

* * *

Commander Alex Stanton kept a sharp eye out while he drove. Thus far, no law enforcement vehicles had appeared, indicating that his team had done their job well. Still, they couldn't afford to relax until they were safely in space. The van they were using was relatively nondescript, but if there was one thing Alex had learned in all his years of military service, it was never to underestimate your opponent.

"Cooper," Alex called out without taking his eyes off the road. "How are we doing on ammunition?" In the back of the vehicle, a young man with magenta hair was looking through the magazines for the strike team's weapons, and he frowned slightly as he answered.

"We've got four more clips for the automatics, as well as two more HE rounds for the RPG and six more tranquilizer darts. We're not out of tricks, but I'd prefer not to get into a spat with the local law, much less the military, under these conditions." Alex nodded quickly.

"They don't seem to be following," he said, grinning slightly. "I think we have the Three Amigos to thank for that." That comment prompted some laughter from the soldiers in question. Allen Rodriguez, Virgil Hawke and Joseph Masterson, better known as the Three Amigos, were notorious for their enthusiasm for missions and their almost homicidal desire to kill the enemy. It had, in fact, crossed Alex's mind that they were probably mentally unstable, but they were effective enough for him to keep them on his team in spite of that. Back at the hospital, they and Cooper had made sure that there were enough collateral casualties to make the operation resemble a Blue Cosmos attack. Shouting that crap about a pure, blue world had helped as well. Finally, there was the matter of their captive.

"How's our boy, Lia?" At his question, the sapphire-haired girl looked back briefly to where a young male brunette, their objective, lay on the floor of the vehicle, bound at both the hands and feet.

"Sleeping like a baby," she said quickly. Alex knew that Lia Cromwell could be trusted to administer another tranquilizer should the captive wake up. After all, Sanford would have Alex's head if her precious specimen were to be damaged any further on route.

They were drawing near to the coast now, traveling down a narrow back road, the vegetation of the inland areas having given way to lava rock eroded by millennia of abuse from the pounding surf. Alex pulled the van to a stop and took out a small computer. Plugging the cord from a miniature satellite dish into the mechanism, he placed the dish on the roof of the van and turned on the computer. He quickly tapped a few keys, and a small icon appeared on the screen, telling him to wait while the connection was being made. After a few seconds, a face appeared where the icon had been. There was some static thanks to the N-jammers, but the image and audio would be clear enough.

"Dr. Sanford," Alex stated in a carefully measured tone. "This is Commander Stanton, reporting in." These conversations always made him uncomfortable.

Dr. Elizabeth Sanford was not a member of the military, but she had a commanding aura that would make any officer jealous. Her pale, almost white skin and long black hair seemed only to highlight her striking crimson eyes, and Alex had always believed her intimidating presence had something to do with the way she looked at you; it was almost as though she could physically hurt you with her gaze, should she choose to do so. Dr. Sanford also had a quality to her that Commander Stanton found hard to define; it was almost as though those unnerving scarlet eyes could see _through_ you, as though they could see all of your desires, secrets and flaws. Alex tried to keep his discomfort out of his voice, as he knew how important the scientist was to what he and his comrades hoped to accomplish.

"We've successfully captured our target and are nearing the departure point." On the screen, Dr. Sanford nodded.

"Very good," she said. "I take it you managed to conceal your true objective from the public." It was Stanton's turn to nod.

"We made sure there were several Coordinators among the dead, as well as using the signature phrase of those Blue Cosmos bastards at a volume guaranteed to be audible to someone in the vicinity."

"Did anyone see you take the boy?" Alex shook his head.

"Negative," he said, but Lia shifted in her seat, obviously uncomfortable, and it caught Dr. Sanford's eye. The crimson gaze shifted to the girl.

"Did anyone see you take the boy, Miss Cromwell?" Lia hesitated before speaking.

"There was a girl," she said. On the screen, Sanford cocked an eyebrow. "She tried to stop me from acquiring the target."

"And how did you resolve this issue?" the scientist inquired. Lia grimaced.

"I tranquilized her." The woman on the video screen sighed, but her eyes stabbed at Lia, and the soldier shrank back somewhat. She returned her focus to Alex.

"Commander Stanton," she said in controlled, icy tone. "Do Blue Cosmos members take Coordinators as captives?"

"No, Ma'am," he said, realizing that their cover was dangerously close to being compromised.

"Need I remind you how important Kira Yamato is to what we are trying to do?" She asked. Alex shook his head.

"I understand the situation, Dr. Sanford."

"I should certainly hope so," she said. Alex turned around, looking toward the back of the van.

"Cooper, I want you and Lia to take the VTOL and find this girl. By midnight, she doesn't exist. Is that understood?" Both soldiers nodded. "I'll have another shuttle sent for you." He turned back to the video screen. "The rest of us will bring the captive to you." Dr. Sanford nodded.

"How long should that take?" Alex looked at his watch.

"ETA is approximately forty-eight hours."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Dr. Sanford's last name is the name of the town in _Hot Fuzz_, one of my favorite movies.

I hope I didn't make Flay seem too courageous or tough. Flay is not a combat-capable character like Cagalli, but I wanted to show that her fear of physical combat is somewhat mitigated by her desire to help Kira. Despite how spoiled she is when we first meet her at Heliopolis, Flay has an inner strength that is shown a few times during the series, but only becomes truly visible near the end. She is willing to risk her own safety for those she cares about, like when she risks Azrael's wrath to try to warn the _Archangel_ in Phase-49. Unfortunately, Fukuda decided to kill Flay, and her character development was cut short. I plan to have her mature a little more during this story, based on what I think _could_ have been done with her character if she hadn't died. Here's to hoping I don't mess it up.


	2. Urgency

Disclaimer: Commander Alexander Stanton and his team, as well as Chief Representative Lee Ikari, are my creations. I don't own _Gundam SEED_ or any of its characters.

Chapter 2: Urgency

* * *

**Athha Manor**

* * *

"This happened during the Blue Cosmos attack?" Even over the phone, the shock was still audible in Murrue's voice.

"No, Captain Ramius," Cagalli said, pacing back and forth as she talked. "I don't think there _was_ a Blue Cosmos attack. I think that whole thing was just a cover." She stopped for a moment, resting her hand on the table next to her. "I know what I'm asking you, but—." Murrue cut Cagalli off before she could finish.

"He may be your brother, but Kira is family to me as well, and most of the crew probably feels the same way. We'll be ready to launch by dawn." Cagalli nodded grimly.

"I'll know where those bastards ran to by then."

"Do what you can, Cagalli; I'll see you at Onogoro tomorrow morning." The two women said their goodbyes, and Cagalli hung up, turning and walking across the library to where Athrun sat on the sofa comforting Flay. It had been just one hour earlier that the redhead had burst into the parliament house, out of breath and trailed by security personnel somewhat apologetic for not trying harder to stop her. Cagalli had waved the guards off, as she didn't terribly mind the interruption. She understood that Yuna had needed to talk to her about military spending, but why couldn't he have come to the training facility instead of having her drive all the way to him? Besides, it wasn't like there weren't higher-ranking military officers he could have spoken with. At this rate, Cagalli was beginning to suspect that the younger Seiran had ulterior motives for wanting to see her.

Needless to say, it had been no problem to blow him off to speak to Flay, and when she had heard about Kira, they had rushed back to the mansion, where they now sat in the grand library. Flay's eyes were red and puffy from crying. When she had found Athrun and Cagalli, she had been under obvious stress but kept herself together admirably. When Athrun had asked her to explain what was going on, however, reliving the ordeal had proved too much for the girl, and Flay had been crying since they got back to the house half an hour ago.

"I just talked with Captain Ramius," Cagalli said, kneeling down so that her face was level with Flay's. "We'll be going after Kira by tomorrow, so don't worry." Flay looked at her questioningly.

"What if they don't let you take a ship?" she asked. Orb's defense fleet wasn't that large, and every warship was a precious resource. Athrun put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Kira's one of the military's best OS programmers, not to mention his piloting skills," he said. "Getting him back isn't just a matter of personal feelings; it's important for the country as well. Now, do you want to stay with Kira's parents tonight?" Flay shook her head.

"I want to know if anything new comes up. Can I stay here?" Athrun looked away from Flay and turned his emerald eyes to Cagalli.

"Sure," the blonde said. "There's a guest bedroom down the hall; you should get some rest." It had been a little less than five hours since the attack, and the sun wouldn't set for quite a while yet, but Cagalli could tell that Flay was worn out, and sleep would probably be the best thing for her. After thanking the older girl, the redhead left the library and headed off down a side hall. Athrun turned back to Cagalli.

"What do you think?" he asked, "tighten security at all ports and catch these guys as they try to leave?" Cagalli nodded.

"We're already doing that, but they might have left the planet. Did you check shuttle launches?" Athrun nodded in turn.

"Nothing unauthorized has left our spaceports, which means that either they're still here or they have their own shuttles, which would take considerable funding." Cagalli moved on to the last thing she could think of.

"What about the dart?" she asked, remembering the projectile Flay had given them earlier.

"I didn't recognize it, so I gave it to Captain Todaka and asked him to run it through the military database and see if he could come up with a match." Cagalli sighed with frustration.

"How long is that going to take?"

"I don't know," Athrun replied.

"Well we can't just sit here and do nothing!" Cagalli had been calm and collected in front of Flay, but now that she was alone with Athrun, she let a little of her inner turmoil slip free. Her brother was in harm's way. There had to be _something_ she could do.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when Athrun approached her from behind and put his arms around her.

"I'm worried about him too," the blue-haired boy said. "But we won't be able to do anything until we know more about these guys." Cagalli sighed, relaxing against him.

"I just hate not doing anything," she said, and Athrun nodded. He had an amazing ability to remain calm; it was one of the things Cagalli loved about him.

_Well, not always,_ she thought. Sometimes when she was upset, it only made things worse for her boyfriend to seem completely unfazed by whatever was going on. Right now, however, it was exactly what she needed: for someone to be the ice to her fire, the calm to her storm. She shifted in Athrun's arms, and he kissed her forehead reassuringly.

* * *

"Well, is she in there?" At Cooper's question, Lia took the binoculars from her face.

"Not only is the redhead in the building, but get this: Cagalli Yula Athha is in the room through that window," she said, handing him the binoculars and indicating where to look. While the eyepieces covered his green eyes, Lia could see Cooper's brows rise in surprise and mild amusement.

"Alright, she's home. So we eliminate our witness," he said, "and we get to bag a lioness while we're at it." He looked back to Lia, who nodded, grinning with excitement.

"Do you want to be shooter or spotter?" she asked. Cooper hesitated for only a second.

"Shooter sounds good to me. It's been a while since I used the VTOL in combat." He stood up and walked away, while Lia settled herself in and trained the binoculars on her quarry again.

They were on a hill about a kilometer and a half East of Athha Manor. It had taken them a few hours to find out just where the girl had run to, and when they finally arrived, they had set the VTOL down behind one of the hills surrounding the mansion. The original plan had been to go in quietly and kill the girl with a silenced firearm, but the presence of the Lioness of Orb complicated things. Aside from Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala, Lady Cagalli was probably the best mobile suit pilot in the Orb military, and rumor had it she was no slouch when it came to a straightforward shootout.

In order to neutralize Athha's advantage in combat, they would have to attack with overwhelming force. Lia pressed a button on her headset, activating it.

"Cooper, do you copy?" she asked.

"Roger that," came the voice over the com-link. Lia brought the binoculars back to her eyes.

"Okay. Lady Athha's still in the room I showed you earlier, along with a boy who, judging by hair color, is probably a Coordinator." She paused as something occurred to her. "In fact, if appearance is anything to go by, that might actually be Athrun Zala in there."

"Are you sure?" Cooper asked. "I mean, how many war heroes can you find together in one place?" Lia shrugged, even though she knew Cooper couldn't see it.

"Well, I've only heard descriptions, so it might not be Zala, but we know that Yamato, Athha and he stayed with the Orb military after the war, so it's not impossible." Cooper chuckled over the com-link, and Lia could practically hear him shaking his head at the situation.

"We had better get medals for this when we get back," he said.

"Copy that," Lia agreed. "Now, let's get this show on the road."

* * *

The first thing Cagalli noticed was the sound: the low, reverberating whine of some sort of engine. She looked at Athrun questioningly.

"Do you hear that?" she asked. He nodded.

"Yeah, and I think it's getting closer.

The library was a large room, twenty meters long and with a high ceiling. Bookshelves lined one side of the room, but on the side facing out into the countryside, the wall was lined with massive arched windows that went almost all the way to the ceiling, separated by large stone support pillars. Cagalli walked over to one of the windows, a growing sense of unease creeping over her. The sound was indeed getting closer, as Cagalli could feel the vibrations through the floor, and dust had begun to fall from the stone walls. As she reached the window and looked out, the source of the noise became visible.

It resembled a helicopter, sans propellers. Two large rotors were mounted on mechanical arms extending from the sides of the vehicle, and two box-shaped eight-barrel missile launchers were affixed to the tail. Cagalli recognized the profile of the vertical takeoff and landing fighter, after all, Orb's helis had a similar design, and she knew just how little time she had to take cover as the triple-barreled Gatling gun mounted under the fighter's nose begin to spin.

Inhaling sharply, Cagalli dove behind one of the pillars as a burst of gunfire shattered the window and tore into the pillar itself, sending stone chips and dust flying in all directions. Coughing out some of the dust, Cagalli looked over and saw Athrun crouched down on the other side of the window, his sidearm already in his hand. Not bothering to question how he got there, she reached into her jacket and drew her own handgun. Cagalli knew that the nine-millimeter rounds would do almost nothing to the vehicle's armored fuselage, but maybe if she could get a shot on the cockpit…

Taking a deep breath, Cagalli stepped out into the open and managed to fire one shot at the fighter before the vehicle opened up with the Gatling gun again, forcing her back behind cover. She gritted her teeth as bullets ripped through the library a second time, splitting the table at the center of the room in half and spraying everything with splintered wood. She looked at Athrun again.

"Think this is a coincidence?" he said, only half-serious.

"Like hell it is!" Cagalli shouted back. She gestured to Athrun, and they both stepped into the open, firing off several shots but missing the VTOL's cockpit. Another burst of gunfire pushed them back.

"We can't keep this up," Athrun said. Cagalli nodded.

"The house has a silent alarm, but the panel is back at the door," she said. Athrun thought it over for a second.

"I'll cover you." At that, Cagalli bolted across the room as Athrun stepped in front of the window again and started firing. She could hear the gun blasts as well as the sound of her own breath coming short and fast as she drew nearer to the door.

_Come on, come on! Just a little farther._

Suddenly, one of the window-frame pillars in front of her exploded, sending massive chunks of stone flying through the room. Cagalli jumped back, and scrambled behind the nearest undamaged pillar.

Despite Athrun's cover fire, the fighter had managed to send one of its missiles her way. Cagalli squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to catch her breath.

* * *

Cooper was starting to get frustrated. In light of how infuriatingly nimble Lady Cagalli was proving to be, perhaps the Cheetah of Orb would have been a more fitting title for her. Lia came over the radio, interrupting his thoughts.

"What did you use the missile for?"

"I had to cut her off, she was almost out of the room," he replied irritably.

"I wasn't complaining," Lia replied, and then growled in frustration. "I've lost visual on Zala." No sooner had she said that than two bullets embedded themselves in the cockpit's ballistic glass, causing Cooper to jump in spite of himself. Swearing, he swiveled the Gatling gun slightly and fired, forcing the young Coordinator behind one of the pillars. Watching the structure to make sure that his target didn't escape, Cooper prepared to fire another missile.

"Damn it! We've got military forces inbound." Cooper moved his finger away from the firing button when he heard that.

"Talk to me, Lia. What are we dealing with?"

"Four mobile suits are coming in fast!" Gritting his teeth, Cooper swung the VTOL around as the first MBF-M1 Astray, a Shrike rotor unit attached to its flight pack, came around the side of the mansion and settled to the ground. The machine stood between seventeen and eighteen meters tall, its aggressive-looking orange and white frame gleaming in the sunlight. As the mobile suit raised its beam rifle, he reacted, spraying it with Gatling fire. The Astray brought up its anti-beam shield, and the bullets ricocheted off harmlessly. It did, however, buy Cooper the time he needed to throw the fighter into reverse and start to retreat.

* * *

Cagalli stood in the library, staring out through what remained of one of the windows. She had only just set off the alarm, but there was already at least one Astray Shrike standing outside. The VTOL fighter was covering its retreat with gunfire, but it wasn't going to last. The Astray was advancing, its shield held in front of it, and the Gatling gun would run out of ammunition sooner or later.

Apparently, the fighter pilot realized this as well, and he launched a pair of missiles into the mobile suit's shield. The force of the explosion knocked it backwards, and the VTOL took advantage of the opening. It angled its rotors slightly, turned 180 degrees, fired the miniature jet engines under the rotors and accelerated to full speed…

And it was forced to bank sharply to avoid running into the two Astrays coming at it from the other direction. A fourth mobile suit came to rest beside the first one, which was rising to its feet even as the other three rose into the air and moved to encircle the fighter. The vehicle may have been cornered, but the pilot wasn't giving up yet, and as Cagalli watched, the fighter tilted its rotors back, flying up and backwards over the nearest Astray, and launched eight more missiles at the mobile suits. Two of them took light damage as the anti-tank missiles struck a leg and a shoulder, disabling the limbs but doing no fatal harm. A third Astray, however, took a missile on the left side of its chest. The shaped charge explosive sent a hypersonic jet of burning copper stabbing into the mobile suit. A secondary explosion tore through the left pectoral vent, blasting away chunks of metal and sending the machine crashing to the ground. From what Cagalli could see, the cockpit was intact, but the MS was definitely out of the fight. She knew there was no chance of hitting the fighter's cockpit from here; it was too far off the ground now.

_Those rotors are awfully big targets, though._

Gripping her handgun tightly, Cagalli jumped out through the window and ran in between the feet of the nearest Astray. Getting underneath the VTOL, the Lioness went in for the kill, firing shot after shot into the jet engine beneath the right rotor. The tactic worked. The bullets penetrated near the exhaust nozzle, and the engine began to smoke. The fighter spun around and pointed its Gatling gun directly at her, the weapon making a low mechanical whine as it started to spin.

The pilot had her, dead to rights. At least, that was probably what he thought until an emerald blast from the nearest Astray's Type 71 beam rifle pierced the VTOL's cockpit. The resulting explosion blew the fighter apart. The nose and Gatling gun were hurled forward and crashed down perhaps ten feet from Cagalli, while the tail and missile launchers dropped like a rock and hit the ground with a loud thud. The rotors spun away and slammed into the earth, sending clumps of soil into the air. As the dust settled, the cockpit of one of the M1s opened.

"Lady Cagalli," the pilot called out. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she responded. "But how did you guys get here so fast? I triggered the alarm maybe one minute before you showed up, so who called you?"

"She did," Athrun called out, and Cagalli turned back to see him and Flay climbing out through one of the shattered windows. Cagalli found herself genuinely surprised. In the chaos of the attack, she had completely forgotten about the redhead. Indeed, Flay seemed out of place in the destroyed area, stepping gingerly around any debris she saw and trying not to touch any of the shattered glass and broken rock. She reached Cagalli and shrugged.

"I heard shots and explosions, so I called the emergency number," she said, and the blonde couldn't help but smile a little. Flay was trying to act humble, but Kira had told Cagalli about how she had been back at Heliopolis. Flay had loved being the center of attention, and while she had probably been terrified while the fight was going on, Cagalli had no doubt she was enjoying being responsible for helping to end it.

"Commodore Athha," the pilot from earlier called her. "What are your orders?" Cagalli thought for a moment.

"Have two of the Astrays sweep the immediate area; we don't want any more of these guys sneaking up on us later," she said. "Call for a retrieval crew and a medic for the pilot of the disabled suit." She glanced back at the mansion for a moment. "I need to get on the phone. Chief Representative Ikari is going to raise Hell when he hears about this."

* * *

**Onogoro Island, Coastal Dry Dock**

* * *

By the time the sun rose the next morning, much had happened. As Captain Murrue Ramius made her way down the corridors of the _Archangel_, she stared absentmindedly into her coffee cup, reflecting.

After examining the pieces of the destroyed fighter, military analysts had matched it to a type used by Earth Alliance forces. The possibility had been raised that this might be an act of war, but after tense discussions with the Alliance ambassador and other Earth Forces personnel, it had been determined that the fighter was an older model. The version currently employed by the Alliance possessed a six-barrel Vulcan gun, with double the rate of fire of the attacker's Gatling cannon. In addition, the missiles on the attacking fighter had been wire-guided, while the newer model used laser-guided missiles. All things considered, a black market purchase seemed likely.

Matters had only gotten more complicated when Todaka ran the dart through the military database. It turned out that the projectile was a ZAFT design, but Athrun had been adamant that Chairwoman Canaver would never do something like this.

In other words, the evidence led nowhere. When all was said and done, however, Chief Representative Lee Ara Ikari had granted Athrun, Cagalli and Murrue what they had all wanted. He had authorized the launch of the _Archangel_, with the purpose of searching for Kira Yamato and his kidnappers. The vessel had been armed and fueled and was now on standby, waiting for its quarry to move. One hour earlier, an unidentified shuttle had entered the atmosphere, and had landed somewhere along the Orb coastline, with the apparent purpose of retrieving surviving members of the failed attack on Athha Manor.

"Anything yet, Petty Officer Tonomura?" Murrue asked as she stepped onto the bridge. Down in the CIC, a young man with Asian features and glossy black hair looked up from his data screen.

"Not yet, Captain," he said, sounding somewhat weary. Murrue knew he had been manning his post for the past few hours. "How are things down in the hangar?"

"Well, we've got the Rouge aboard, along with all the Striker packs and the new IWSP module," she said. "We've also had four Astrays brought aboard, three of which have their own pilots. The remaining one is for Athrun." Murrue had just seated herself in the captain's chair when the bridge entrance opened and a young crewmember stepped in.

"Captain Ramius, there's someone asking to join us," he said, obviously nervous. Murrue sighed. She wasn't obsessed with military regulations, but simply allowing people to walk onto a battleship was irresponsible, to say the least. Murrue was about to tell the young man to escort their visitor off the ship when Flay Allster stepped through the door. The redhead wore a simple, long-sleeved rouge dress that went down to just below her knees, and she looked nervous.

"Flay," Captain Ramius said gently. "What are you doing here?" Flay hesitated for a moment, and Murrue sensed she was gathering her courage.

"Can I come with you?" she asked.

"Flay, you shouldn't worry yourself about this. Go back and stay with Kira's parents until—."

"I'd feel a lot better if I came with you," the girl reiterated. "I ran communications on the _Dominion_, and I can do the same thing here," she hastened to add. Murrue understood Flay's relationship with Kira, and she knew just how much it hurt to lose a loved one and be unable to do anything about it.

"You do realize that this will be dangerous," she said. If the girl was going to join the crew, Murrue wanted to be sure she was aware of the risks. "These people, whoever they are, are serious about what they're doing." Flay nodded.

"I know, Captain Ramius," she said. "I was there when they…" she faltered for a moment, but swallowed quickly and regained her composure. "I know what we're up against." Murrue waited for a moment, just to be sure Flay didn't have any second thoughts, and then smiled.

"Alright, I'm sure we have a spare uniform in the crew's dressing room. Do you need someone to show you the way?" Flay shook her head, smiling at being welcomed aboard.

"No thanks, Captain; I remember enough to find my way there," she said, and quickly left the bridge.

_This is going to be a __**lot**__ of paperwork_, Murrue thought. She'd have to do some sort of retroactive enlistment when this was over. Flay wasn't likely to be happy about it, but Murrue couldn't have a civilian running communications on a warship.

Perhaps five minutes passed in silence, and then Jackie Tonomura called out from the CIC.

"Captain, we have the shuttle on radar!"

"Are you sure?" Murrue asked quickly.

"Absolutely: it's increasing its angle of ascent and its velocity is rising." Captain Ramius looked over at Ensign Arnold Neumann, who sat at the helm, an expectant look on his face.

"Is the mass driver ready to go?" she asked quickly. The helmsman nodded, and Murrue strapped herself into her seat before pressing a button on her right armrest, broadcasting her voice across the ship's intercom.

"All hands brace for acceleration," she said. "The _Archangel_ is launching."

* * *

**Author's Note: **The chase is on! While I was planning to have Lacus enter the story in this chapter, I realized that I didn't want her and Flay simultaneously asking if they could come along.

The VTOL fight was a lot of fun for me to write, and it was nice to finally get Cagalli into the story. I'm not sure if I got the dynamic right between her and Athrun, so AsuCaga fans will have to let me know. For the record, the actual VTOL fighter seats two, a pilot and (I assume) a gunner. I figure our villains might have tinkered with the controls to allow the pilot to use the gun as well.

I didn't have Cagalli be Chief Representative because she's 17, and I doubt any sane government would place the responsibility of running a nation onto the shoulders of someone so young, so I came up with Lee Ikari to fill the position. I had a rather extended conversation with Dragoon Swordsman (author of Valkyrie's Run and Destiny Awaits) and he suggested that Cagalli would retain her position as a mobile suit pilot after the war. Obviously, this would mean that Athrun wouldn't need to be her body guard, as she probably keeps a gun on hand.

Finally, I mentioned that Kira is still with the Orb military. In _Destiny_, Kira is very withdrawn toward the beginning, and spends much of his time looking out at the ocean. I attribute a lot of this to losing Flay, and I thought that if she hadn't died, Kira might be much better off. That's just my opinion of course.

Next Chapter: Our heroes receive a new ally, as a "show of good faith" from the EA, Kira awakens, and we learn some more about our villains.


	3. Allies and Enemies

Disclaimer: I don't own _Gundam SEED_ or any of its characters. Dr. Elizabeth Sanford, Commander Alexander Stanton and his team, Squadron Commander Javier Sabato, Commander David Herikawa and Ensign Roger Doolittle are my creations.

Chapter 3: Allies and Enemies

High above the Earth, the vessel shed the last trailing wisps of atmosphere. On the bridge, Murrue watched as a few of the new crewmembers dealt with the effects of weightlessness. While the captain and most of the bridge crew had long since grown accustomed to the feeling, one or two of the greener trainees were currently holding fast to control panels and handrails, eyes squeezed shut as they willed their stomachs to settle. Murrue heard Neumann chuckle, and she smiled a little herself. The trainees would get their "space legs" soon enough. The captain turned her chair slightly as the bridge door slid open and Flay, now clad in the blue and silver of the Orb Military, entered the room, floating about somewhat awkwardly before grabbing the back of Murrue's chair and giving the older woman an apologetic smile. Pushing off, she settled down in front of the communications panel.

"Tonomura, do we still have the shuttle on radar?" Murrue asked. The officer nodded.

"It's approximately two hundred kilometers ahead of us, Captain," he replied as the bridge entrance opened again and Athrun and Cagalli floated in. An image of the fleeing craft appeared on the main view screen. Light green in color, the vehicle resembled a standard shuttle orbiter, with a sleek fuselage and swept-back wings, though the wings on this model curved upwards as well, and there was a set of small canards above the flight deck.

"Have you matched the profile to anything in the database?" Murrue asked, and down in the CIC, Petty Officer Dalida Chandra's eyes widened behind his spectacles.

"Yes, Captain," he said grimly. "It's a ZAFT model." Murrue looked back at Athrun, whose face bore an expression of deep worry. This was the second ZAFT design Kira's abductors had employed.

"Flay," Murrue said, turning to the com station. "Send a message back to Orb before we get too far out. They have more powerful transmitters, so they can get a message to the PLANTs. Tell them to get in contact with Chairwoman Canaver or her closest aid and make certain that the ZAFT military has not mobilized in any way."

"Uh, okay; give me second," Flay said. She hesitated briefly, concentrating, Murrue guessed, on remembering how the communications array worked. After a moment, the redhead seemed to recall enough details to satisfy her, and she hit a few toggles on her control panel and began speaking quickly into her headset. Murrue allowed her thoughts to drift back to ZAFT. She really hoped they weren't involved.

_We don't need another Patrick Zala running the National Defense Committee like it's his own private army._ The look on Athrun's face told Murrue that he was thinking the same thing. After a few minutes, Flay turned and looked up from her console.

"Orb Military Headquarters says they'll talk to the PLANTs," she said.

"Good," Murrue replied, and was about to speak to Neumann about the possibility of getting closer to the shuttle when Jackie Tonomura spoke up again.

"We have a ship on radar, Captain." Murrue paused for a moment, startled.

"Identify it," she said, and it was only a second before Chandra called up from the CIC.

"It's Alliance, Ma'am: a _Cornelius_-class supply ship." Before Murrue could say anything else, Flay spoke.

"Captain Ramius, they say they have a pilot and two mobile suits they'd like to send aboard." Murrue's brow furrowed and she looked back at Flay.

"Ask them why they're doing this," she instructed. After the war, Murrue had acquired a fair degree of distaste for the Earth Forces brass. Even though there had been public trials after the signing of the Junius Treaty, and many officials had been sentenced to prison (or, for some of the higher ups, executed for High Treason) for their involvement with Blue Cosmos, Murrue still found it hard to trust them.

"Official word is that they're interested in helping us however they can," Flay relayed after talking with the other ship for a few moments. "They think that whoever's doing this may want to provoke a war between the Earth Alliance and Orb."

"If that's true, why did they only send two mobile suits, and only one pilot to boot?" The question had come from Commander David Herikawa, a tall, reed-thin man with dark hair and hawk-like brown eyes who oversaw the CIC crew. He was a member of the Orb military who had transferred to the _Archangel_ just two months ago. Despite his relative inexperience, he did his job well.

"Apparently the Alliance doesn't want to escalate this fight any further than necessary," Flay said, holding a hand over her headset as she listened to the Earth Forces ship. "They figured a small force would be best until they can ascertain the level of the threat." Murrue thought for a moment before speaking.

"If we slow down to let them hand over their man, will we lose the shuttle?" Neumann shook his head.

"It's fast, but we're faster," he said. "Besides, there's no place for it to hide out here. We won't lose it." Captain Ramius nodded.

"Alright," she said. "Flay, tell them we're letting their man on board." She turned to address the bridge in general. "I'm going down to the hangar to greet our guest. Commander Herikawa, you have the bridge."

* * *

**Lagrange Point 5, Aprilius 1**

* * *

"I know the chairman of the National Defense Committee personally, Lacus, and I can assure you that he would never stoop to kidnapping."

PLANT Provisional Supreme Council Chairwoman Eileen Canaver looked every bit the part of a majestic leader. The chairwoman was resplendent in her long, blue suit-jacket and matching skirt, and her face was framed by wavy, golden-brown hair that hung down just past her shoulders. At the moment, Canaver stood in the nearly empty Supreme Council chamber with Andrew Waltfeld, the one-eyed ace dressed in Orb's blue and white uniform, and Lacus Clyne, who wore an elegant white blouse with separated sleeves and a lavender skirt. Lacus' face would have appeared calm to an outside observer, but within her, a terrible weight pulled at her heart.

Kira was in danger, maybe hurt, and she was still no closer to finding him.

"Thank you, Madam Chairwoman," she said quietly. The older woman put a hand on her shoulder.

"You can call me Eileen, Lacus." The chairwoman smiled gently. "Your father and I were good friends, so you don't have to be formal with me, and I'm sorry I couldn't help you." Lacus shook her head, indicating that there was no need for an apology. Waltfeld saluted.

"Madam Chairwoman, thank you for your time," he said. Canaver's time was more valuable now than ever, as she was helping in the dissolution of the Provisional Supreme Council. She would soon step down, and Gilbert Durandal would accept the office. Chairwoman Canaver nodded gently at Waltfeld's statement, and he and Lacus left the chamber. The Desert Tiger watched Lacus as they walked down the long hallway. "You needed to be here, you know," he said.

"I know," Lacus replied. "Still, I just keep thinking that I should be able to do something to help." Lacus had been presiding over political negotiations when the kidnapping had occurred. The Earth Alliance and the PLANTs had been discussing reparations and aid for the United States of South America. The Atlantic Federation had removed most of its troops from the USSA, but the country was in bad shape, and it needed all the help available. Given the remaining tension between the PLANTs and the Alliance, Chairwoman Canaver had deemed it necessary to have a moderator for the proceedings, and Lacus' more moderate group fit the bill. Andrew put a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Trust me," he said. "If there's one thing the kid can do, it's keep himself alive. Hell, _I_ couldn't kill him." A wry smile accompanied that last remark. Lacus nodded, acknowledging the truth of the captain's words. Still, she couldn't sit and wait for news of Kira's fate to reach her. The pink princess's next words were spoken with the resolution that had made her such a capable diplomatic figure despite her age.

"We have never stood on the sidelines while others fought, Captain Waltfeld," Lacus said, her blue eyes focused on him. "Do you know of anything we can do now?" The Tiger paused for a moment, considering his options.

"Well, while Kira and Athrun do have some personal ties, direct or indirect, to people in ZAFT, that won't be enough to justify military action on their part. Orb, however, has a vested interest in recovering Kira, so that would be our best bet." Lacus nodded.

"When are we heading back?"

"Tonight. We'll see what we can do when we get there."

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Hangar**

* * *

Cagalli had decided, along with Athrun, to follow Murrue down to the hangar, and by the time they arrived the deck crew had just finished loading the Earth Forces machines onto the _Archangel_. The first stood just over eighteen meters high, and its grey frame was covered with blocky grey and blue armor. Extra thrusters projected from the armor on its shoulders and legs. The mobile suit's left shoulder held a box that looked like a closed missile launcher, and an artillery piece of some sort was mounted on its right shoulder. Overall, the machine had the somewhat crude appearance of the Dagger series.

The second mobile suit, however, was no Dagger, and the sight of it caused unpleasant memories to surface in Cagalli's mind. Green and black with orange trim, the main body of the machine was identical to one of the three G-weapons the Alliance had sent to lead their invasion of Orb. Unlike the original, this machine seemed to be missing a few things. Its massive beam cannons were gone, as was its bazooka and gun-equipped shield. The mere presence of the sinister-looking MS was enough to remind Cagalli of why she didn't like the Alliance. The pilot the Earth Forces ship had sent over, on the other hand…

The man who descended from the cockpit of the armored Dagger stood about 173 centimeters tall, and his spiked-up, dyed-blonde hair added another centimeter or two. He didn't look that old, perhaps nineteen or so, although he managed to project a disciplined attitude as he approached the group of Orb officers. The soldier paused when he reached them.

"Captain Murrue Ramius?" he asked. When the woman in question stepped forward, the Alliance pilot saluted. "Ensign Roger Doolittle, of the Earth Alliance Forces' Seventh Orbital Fleet."

"Oh, great," Cagalli said irritably. The new soldier's American accent meant he was from the Atlantic Federation, which was not only the heart of the Earth Alliance, but the most heavily infiltrated by Blue Cosmos as well. Ensign Doolittle shot her an annoyed glance, but let the comment pass.

"Anyway," he said. "I'm here to aid you in whatever capacity I can." Murrue spoke next.

"Welcome aboard, Ensign Doolittle. Given our positions during the war, you'll understand if some members of the crew are not exactly trusting." The Earth Forces soldier raised his hands in a placating gesture.

"Hey," he said. "I didn't like having my government run by terrorists either." While it may have been meant to calm, this last remark set Cagalli's blood boiling. Doolittle had _known_ about Blue Cosmos, and he had _still_ fought for them?

"If you found out, why didn't you defect?" the princess asked, at which point Ensign Doolittle shot her another sharp glance, and his strange yellow eyes flashed.

"Well, some of us actually have a sense of _loyalty_ to our country," Roger began, but Captain Ramius cut him off.

"Ensign Doolittle," she said sharply. "If you are going to serve aboard this ship, you are going to do so under my command, and I do not tolerate infighting among my pilots." She softened her tone. "We won't question your motives for serving your country," she glanced at Cagalli, "but rest assured that Commodore Athha knows plenty about loyalty." Cagalli nodded in acknowledgment. Murrue returned the gesture, and then turned back to Ensign Doolittle. "I was wondering if you could explain why you brought over two mobile suits when you are the only pilot here." The Earth Forces soldier, perhaps a bit absentminded, followed her gaze to the machines.

"Oh, right!" he said, and gestured to the malevolent-looking suit. "Say hello to the GAT-X133 Sword Calamity." He walked around the machine, pointing out its various features as he talked. "It's a close combat variation of the original 131 model. The Trans-Phase armor is the same, but R and D removed the Schlags and put in these two Schwert Gewehr anti-ship swords instead. The shoulder thrusters from the 131 were also removed and replaced with two Midas Messer beam boomerangs, and the shield was taken off to mount the Panzer Eisen rocket anchors you see on the wrists. Of course, the standard Armor Schneider knives are still stored in the hip armor, and the Scylla five hundred eighty millimeter multi-phase energy cannon is still in place, although they dropped it to thirty percent of the original power to provide more energy to the thrusters."

"Are you to pilot that?" Murrue asked, at which Doolittle chuckled slightly.

"Oh, you have no idea how much I'd love to, but I can't pilot this at the moment, since the OS is extremely high-performance, just like the original Calamity." He turned back to his audience. "It's only operable for Coordinators and special Alliance pilots, so it's yours for the moment, although I think that was a diplomatic butt-kissing gesture on the part of Command more than anything else." He smiled a little at his own joke. Murrue gave Athrun and Cagalli a questioning look. Cagalli shook her head.

"I'm a Natural, remember?" she said. "I also prefer the Rouge's versatility." Beside her, Athrun hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"This is definitely a lot more powerful than an Astray, but I know the M1's controls as well as its performance capability. I don't know this machine's limits." The Coordinator turned to Captain Ramius. "I don't want to risk going into battle with an unfamiliar mobile suit." Doolittle shrugged.

"Well, the downside of this is that we're now pulling eighty one and a half metric tons of dead weight." He raised his eyebrows and tilted his head, performing one of those bizarre shrugs done entirely with the face. "On the other hand, I won't have to enter the code to unlock the OS every time you guys want to use the damn thing."

"I take it then that you'll be flying that other suit," Murrue stated, pointing at the armor-plated machine.

"It looks a lot like the Duel," Athrun added thoughtfully, and Ensign Doolittle nodded in agreement.

"This is a GAT-01D1 Duel Dagger. As you guessed, it's based on the GAT-X102 Duel, and it basically serves as a high-performance version of the Strike Dagger. Standard armament is the same as the Duel: a fifty seven millimeter high-energy beam rifle with a hundred seventy five millimeter grenade launcher, as well as the two Igelstellung cannons on the head. If I want to go to close combat, I have the two beam sabers on the mobile suit's hips, but the extra thrusters on the armor mean that I don't usually have to do that. Finally, we replicated the assault shroud ZAFT put on the original Duel and created the Fortrestra armor you see here, albeit the launcher here holds eight missile tubes instead of just five and the shoulder-mounted weapon is a conventional cannon rather than a railgun." He turned away from his suit, frowning. "Unfortunately, it still suffers from the chronic ailment of the Dagger series: a severe case of Ugly." Athrun actually laughed at this last comment. Cagalli had to admit that in spite of his earlier remark, Ensign Doolittle didn't seem like too bad a guy.

"Alright," Murrue said. "Now that this is all sorted out, I'm going to return to the bridge. Ensign Doolittle, I'm sure there is an unoccupied bunk in someone's quarters that you can use. I'll have POFC Chandra find you a room."

"What are our plans regarding the shuttle?" At Athrun's question, Murrue turned to face him.

"We'll continue our pursuit until the vessel either runs out of propellant attempting to pull away, at which point we will intercept it and see what we can learn from the pilot, or until it reaches its destination, at which point we make our move." Cagalli shook her head at this.

"The pilot has to know we're following," she said. "What if he just leads us into a trap?" Athrun nodded in agreement.

"Whoever these people are, they're operating using both ZAFT and EA equipment, so nothing they've left behind can be used to trace them," Murrue replied. "As dangerous as it may be, the shuttle is, for now, our only lead. As much as I don't like it, we have no other choice."

* * *

"**Derelict" space station Radiance, rechristened Azathoth, Debris Belt**

* * *

Kira was unpleasantly cold when he woke, and when he opened his eyes, a harsh light forced him to squeeze them shut again. His head hurt, although Kira suspected it had more to do with the abrupt exposure to bright light than anything else. He lifted his head somewhat, which prompted someone off to his right to speak.

"I suppose you were bound to wake up sooner or later." The voice was female, although unfamiliar. "You're suffering some residual side effects of the sedatives." Kira managed to force one eye open, and saw that he was in a nearly empty room perhaps four meters on a side. The walls were metal and had been painted white, reminding Kira of hospital rooms. As he awoke more fully, he realized that he was lying on a medical cot, dressed in a hospital gown, and that there was a dark-haired woman in a lab coat sitting on a chair next to the bed. The woman drew away from him, holding an empty hypodermic syringe, and Kira remembered that he had been awakened by a slight pain in his right arm. Worry coursing through him, Kira quickly moved to raise his arm to take a look at it, only to discover that restraint straps bound his arms to the bed, allowing him some movement, but not much.

"Relax," the woman said. "It's just a vaccination." She looked to be about thirty years old, and her black hair was pulled back behind her head and held in place with an elastic band. Her skin was very pale, almost white, and when she met Kira's gaze with her own, he discovered that her eyes were an intense ruby hue. Kira quickly looked away from her; the old saying about having a piercing gaze was particularly appropriate for this woman.

"Thanks, but I don't really need any vaccines," he said. He was still trying to remember what was going on. "I'm a—."

"You're a Coordinator," the woman finished. "So am I, but I work with some very dangerous organisms at this facility, and it never hurts to take precautions." Kira's brain registered the comment about precautions, but it stuck, for some reason, on the word "facility."

_I'm at a facility. What facility? I was…_

_ I was…_

_ I was at the hospital picking up Flay._ Kira looked over at the woman.

"Where's Flay?" The red-eyed scientist shrugged.

"I don't know who you're talking about, nor is that any of my concern," she said. "Right now, Kira, _you_ are the important one." Kira was going to say something, but he stopped when the stranger used his name.

"How do you know me?" She looked at him and smiled slightly. From someone else, it might have been a comforting thing, but from this woman the gesture chilled Kira to the bone. There was something about her; it was as though she knew things, personal things. And she didn't seem like someone who could be trusted with that kind of knowledge. Kira's voice shook when he asked his next question. "Who are you?"

"My name is Elizabeth Sanford, and I know you because I worked closely with your father."

"My…my father?" Kira asked.

"Your _real_ father: Doctor Ulen Hibiki." She gave Kira another of those unnerving smiles. "The last time I looked at you, you were too small to be seen without a microscope." A moment passed in utter silence. Whatever Elizabeth Sanford thought, Kira did not consider Ulen Hibiki to be his "real" father, not by a long shot.

"What did you bring me here for?" Sanford inserted another hypodermic needle into Kira's arm, ignoring the way he winced at the pain, and began drawing blood.

"That would take a while to explain," she said, still focused on the syringe. "Suffice it to say that we brought you here because we need to examine the things that make you so…unique." Kira didn't get a chance to ask her anything else, as a voice came over some sort of intercom system.

_"Doctor Sanford, your presence is requested in the control room."_ The woman in question finished drawing Kira's blood and walked over to a control panel on the far wall. Pressing a button on the panel, she spoke into a small wall-mounted microphone.

"I'll be there momentarily," she said, and left the room. The silence gave Kira time to pull his thoughts together.

He was still lacking details as to exactly where he was, as well as why he was here, but after meeting Dr. Sanford he knew that he had to get out of this place, because the alternative could be nothing good.

* * *

By the time Dr. Sanford entered the station's control room, there was already a fair amount of activity. The room itself was circular, and perhaps nine meters in diameter. Since the room was seated on the station's axis of rotation, however, most of that space was taken up by the massive support shaft that ran through the center of the room, and in turn through the center of the station. About three meters of space separated the shaft from the walls, which were lined with video screens and computer consoles.

Squadron Commander Javier Sabato, along with Commander Alexander Stanton, stood before one of the video screens. Sabato was a tall man perhaps forty years of age, with a dark complexion and a neatly trimmed goatee. He was currently dressed in a white uniform with a black military cap covering his dark brown hair. Both he and Commander Stanton were speaking to someone on the screen, and as Dr. Sanford approached them, reaching out and grabbing a console to steady herself in the weightless conditions, she could see that the face on the screen was that of the young, blue-haired woman who had tranquilized the interfering civilian instead of killing her. When the two men noticed her, Sabato indicated the screen.

"She just called us. She says she's being followed." At this, Sanford focused on the voice coming over the radio.

"I repeat, I am being pursued by—." The transmission was interrupted by a burst of static, the price of working on a retrofitted old station in a field of debris, but the word "Archangel" was clearly audible, and the tension in the room thickened noticeably.

"Say again," Commander Stanton spoke into the microphone on the console. "You say you're being pursued by an _Archangel_-class ship?" The response was immediate, and there was enough fear in the young woman's voice that it was almost amusing…almost.

"No, I'm being pursued by THE _Archangel!_ One third of the damn Three Ships Alliance is chasing me!" Sabato grimaced and looked over at Sanford.

"That ship has something of a reputation for indestructibility," the veteran said. "How long will it take you to get what you need from the boy?" Dr. Sanford shook her head.

"Too long; we have to stop them." Commander Stanton gave a sarcastic laugh, but Sanford failed to see what was so funny.

"Listen, Doctor. You weren't at Jachin Due; that ship plunged into the ZAFT versus Earth Forces melee, and yet somehow the only time it took any real damage was when it was confronted with **another **_Archangel_-class. We'd need ten ships with full mobile suit compliments before I'd feel comfortable taking that thing on." They were silent for a moment, before Sabato took the initiative.

"Commander Stanton, I would like you to board the _Robespierre_ and retrieve that shuttle. Engage the _Archangel_ only long enough to do that. Afterwards, break off combat and head back to the debris belt at full speed. Do _not_ return to this station until you are certain that you have lost them. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Sir!" Commander Stanton saluted, pushed off from the console and launched himself over to the central shaft, where he pushed a button and boarded the station elevator. Sanford turned to Squadron Commander Sabato, cocking an eyebrow.

"What happens now?" she asked. Sabato sighed.

"Now, Doctor, the game begins in earnest."

* * *

**Author's Note:** I'd like to talk for a moment about the Earth Alliance. I've noticed a tendency in some fanfics (many in the mold of Solid Shark's Birds of a Feather) to make ZAFT composed of 99 percent good guys, with 1 percent bad apples, while the Alliance is portrayed as being composed of 99 percent Blue Cosmos psychos; 1 percent good guys, who desert once they find out the truth about their superiors. I bear no ill will toward the authors for this. In fact, one of my favorite fics, "Valkyrie's Run" (which I highly recommend, by the way), takes this view. Personally, however, I feel that the ratio isn't quite that bad. I mean, there are about 312 million people in the US alone today. Even assuming that number doesn't grow at all by the Cosmic Era, _somebody_ in the country (much less the planet) must be sane. I'd imagine that there are good and evil people on both sides. There's plenty of prejudice among Naturals, a sort of envy of Coordinators, but there's probably a fair amount of Coordinators who are arrogant over their abilities and see themselves as superior to Naturals. Roger Doolittle was a character I came up with before I made this observation (he was originally going to be with Orb) but I decided to make him an Earth Alliance soldier because I just haven't seen enough good guys in the OMNI ranks (in fanfiction, anyway). This is the same reason I mentioned the Atlantic Federation actually taking part in rebuilding the USSA: I wanted to give the impression that, after the war, the Alliance member nations are cleaning up their act, although some Blue Cosmos adherents certainly still remain, waiting for the opportunity to seize power again (when _Destiny_ rolls around).

The Sword Calamity is not a red herring, and even though no one is using it now, rest assured that it _will_ see action later.

As always, I had a heart attack writing Lacus. Hopefully I didn't do anything wrong with her.

Finally, I apologize for the lack of action in this chapter. This was more about bringing characters (Lacus, Roger, etc.) into the story, as well as giving you a little taste of Dr. Sanford and her companions again.

Next Chapter: The veteran (Murrue), the aces (Athrun and Cagalli) and the wildcard (Roger) clash with the enemy in their first real battle.


	4. Into the Fray

Disclaimer: I don't own _Gundam SEED_ or any of its characters. Squadron Commander Javier Sabato, Commander Alexander Stanton and his team, Astray pilots Sara Nakamura, Kenji Tiran and Maria Velasquez, medical officer Serena Ridley, Ensign Roger Doolittle, Dr. Elizabeth Sanford and the CS-M25 Eviscerators are my creations.

Chapter 4: Into the Fray

* * *

**September 12, CE 72**

* * *

It has been said that war consists of interminable stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

The crew of the _Archangel_ wouldn't have minded some terror at this point.

Athrun was currently sitting in the mess hall, sharing a table with Cagalli and Flay, whose shift on the bridge had just come to an end. While no one said it, he could tell that Kira was on all their minds. Cagalli was fidgeting slightly in her seat, tapping her foot on the floor, and Athrun could sense her frustration at being unable to do anything useful. She was a soldier, an excellent one at that, and her skill in combat was what she could use to help her brother. However, since there was no enemy to fight at the moment, the Lioness was consigned to pacing the halls, practicing in the simulator or attempting to relax in her quarters or here. Athrun normally found her intense spirit and fiery personality exciting or even comical, but he was in the same situation, and he was beginning to get frustrated as well. While they weren't related by blood, Kira and he were practically brothers, and while Athrun knew that agonizing over Kira's situation wouldn't get him anywhere, it was hard not to.

For her part, Flay was lost in thought, playing with an item of jewelry. While Athrun hadn't paid much attention to it before, he realized that she had been wearing the silver necklace back at Orb, and he just hadn't noticed it.

The three were shaken from their reverie by the sound of someone clearing his throat behind them. Athrun turned around to find Ensign Doolittle watching them, a tray of food in his hands. He had changed out of his flight suit and was now dressed in a standard white and grey Earth Forces uniform.

"Can I join you?" he asked. Athrun shrugged. Talking with their guest would at least help relieve some of the boredom.

_He'd better just hope he doesn't set Cagalli off._

Doolittle found an open spot and sat down. He looked over at Cagalli.

"I want to apologize for what I said earlier," he said. Cagalli remained silent. "It took me until about ten minutes ago to realize why the name 'Athha' was familiar." He paused for a moment. "Your father gave his life for his country and his ideals; you can't be much more loyal than that." Cagalli nodded slightly.

"Thanks," she said. Doolittle waited for a moment before saying anything else.

"I don't know if this helps," he said, "but I wasn't actually involved in that battle." Cagalli didn't say anything, but Athrun could tell that a little of the tension constricting his girlfriend had been released. The Coordinator was grateful for it too. No one wanted the awkwardness of working with someone they might have fought personally.

_Things might turn out alright here after all._

"So, Princess Athha," Ensign Doolittle began, and Athrun sighed.

_So much for that dream,_ he thought as he watched Cagalli roll her eyes at the formal title.

"Ensign," Athrun moved to correct the Earth Forces officer, but Cagalli held up a hand, indicating to Athrun that she wanted to speak for herself here.

"I don't like being treated differently from everyone else just because of my family, Ensign Doolittle," she said. "You can call me 'Commodore' but please don't call me 'Princess.'" Doolittle shrugged.

"Okay, but you all don't have to keep calling me 'Ensign Doolittle,'" he said with an amused smile. "Yeah, okay, Command would probably _like_ me to stay formal, but almost everyone back on the _Churchill_ just calls me Roger." A moment passed in silence, and then Cagalli spoke up again.

"So, Roger, how come you can't fly the Sword Calamity?" Athrun had to admit that the same question had crossed his mind. Roger's brow furrowed.

"I thought I already explained that the OS isn't for use by Naturals."

"You did explain that," Athrun said. "However, I've never seen a Natural with yellow eyes." The observation seemed to make Roger a bit uncomfortable.

"The eye color is a medical side effect," he said, prompting the inevitable question.

"What is the side effect from?" Surprisingly, the question came from neither Athrun nor Cagalli, but from Flay. At the redhead's inquiry, Roger looked away for a moment, eyes fixed on nothing in particular as he rummaged about in his head for the right words. Finally, he seemed to settle on something, and his gaze returned to his small audience.

"You know how I mentioned special Alliance pilots when I was talking about the 133?" The Earth Forces soldier was speaking in a relatively low voice, and had leaned forward a bit, apparently wanting to keep the conversation between the four at the table. "Well, the technical term for a pilot like that is an 'Extended.' The Extended Program is a project with the goal of giving Naturals the ability to compete with Coordinators on equal footing, at least in terms of combat capability." Roger seemed ready to continue, but Athrun could see where he was going, and was puzzled by an aspect of it.

"This seems like something the Alliance brass would keep quiet," he said, "so how did you get in? No offense, but you don't have a really high rank." Roger took a sip of his drink before responding.

"It is," he said. "In fact, I'd prefer it if it never left this table. The program's been partially declassified, but I can't be naming names or giving out exact locations or anything." All present nodded in understanding. "Well, I found out about it while a couple of my shipmates and I were on shore leave," he said. "We'd had a few drinks." He paused, and then performed another of those bizarre facial shrugs. "Okay, so we were totally hammered, but that's beside the point.

"As far as Atlantic Federation law is concerned, aren't you underage?" Cagalli asked.

"That's _also_ beside the point," Roger replied, jabbing a finger at her for emphasis. "The point is that while I couldn't tell you _how_ we came to this topic of conversation in the first place, at some point during the evening one of our superior officers let something slip about the program. I thought leveling the playing field in the war seemed like a good idea, so I approached my superiors, sober by that point, and asked to join." Roger gave a half smile at the memory.

"Judging by their expressions, not many people ask to enter the program. I later found out it's mostly for younger kids; children who show exceptional physical abilities at an early age are offered a spot in the course, sort of a 'gifted program' for the military. Anyway, I'm no child prodigy, but I passed the physical and psychological tests and was given the all clear. The training I received consisted of extensive time in a simulator, as well as a wildly unpleasant amount of physical exercise and hand to hand combat training." The idea of children being inducted into the military was unsettling for Athrun. It was certainly true that ZAFT pilots were very young, as he himself had joined at only fifteen, but Coordinators' innate abilities allowed them to handle the rigors of military training better than Naturals of the same age.

"Finally," he said, "there were the chemical treatments." The soldier seemed to be quite uncomfortable with whatever he was about to say. After a while, however, he continued. "You've got to understand that all this training still didn't up our reflexes to the level of a Coordinator, so we were given neurological stimulants."

_Neurological Stimulants…_

"The three pilots we fought," Cagalli said, apparently making the connection at the same time Athrun did. While he hadn't heard all of the details, some information had been released during the Copernicus Trials, information about the existence of Alliance pilots who were given performance-enhancing drugs in order to pilot G-weapons on a level exceeding even normal Coordinators. It seemed that three of those pilots had led the Alliance's invasion of Orb, pursuing Athrun and Cagalli to Mendel and even appearing at Jachin Due.

"I still don't understand," Athrun said, shaking his head. "I just can't believe you can willingly work with people like that if you don't think like they do."

"Not everyone in the program is like that," Roger clarified, a little irritation coloring his voice. "Hell, I used to practice hand to hand techniques with this girl named Lous- well, this girl: sweetest person you'll ever meet, provided you're not facing her on the battlefield that is. Besides, the fact of the matter was that if we didn't push ZAFT back into space, GINNs, DINNs and God knows what else were going to come crashing down on my home sooner or later. My parents still live in the Atlantic Federation, and I had to put up with punks like some of the other Extended candidates if I wanted to be able to do anything to help my family." He paused for a moment before resuming the conversation. "Anyway, to get back to the _original_ topic of this whole discussion, the neurostims did enhance our reflexes, but in high enough doses, they had some side effects, one being permanently altering the pigments in the iris, which resulted in my rather distinguished look." He smiled at the last bit. Flay raised her eyebrows.

"You went through all that to explain your eye color?" she asked. Doolittle drew back, looking irritated.

"Well I didn't want to just leave it at 'I was on drugs,'" he said. Cagalli shrugged in response.

"I'd have bought it," she deadpanned. Athrun chuckled, and Roger opened his mouth to reply, but apparently decided to just leave it at that and start eating.

* * *

"Captain, we have a ship on the radar," Jackie Tonomura called up from the CIC.

"Profile matches a _Nazca_-class," Chandra added. Murrue frowned. She turned to face one of the trainees, currently occupying Flay's position at the communications panel.

"Hail them," she said. "Our enemies have been using some ZAFT technology, but a destroyer isn't something they could obtain easily. We don't want to fire on the wrong people." There was the usual delay while one ship attempted to contact the other, but as that delay became longer and longer, and as the destroyer continued to approach, Murrue became correspondingly less and less comfortable. Her suspicions were finally confirmed when Commander Herikawa spoke up from the CIC.

"Captain, we're seeing radar interference here," he said. "It looks like they're activating their N-Jammers." While it didn't seem possible, the enemy had somehow gotten their hands on a ZAFT warship, and they were moving toward the shuttle the _Archangel_ had been pursuing. The time to act had arrived.

"Commander Herikawa," the captain ordered, rising from her chair. "Prepare the ship for combat. All hands, Level One battle stations!"

* * *

_"All hands, Level One battle stations!"_ The captain's voice coming over the intercom put an end to Ensign Sara Nakamura's rest. She hadn't been sleeping, but lying on her bed had been a nice reprieve from Kenji's advances. Her fellow pilot was well aware of the fact that Sara had a boyfriend back home, and she knew Kenji just did it to get a response out of her. Still, it could get a little annoying. Now, however, it looked as though she had something else to do.

Less than seven minutes later, Sara was in the hangar, suited up and activating her M1. She opened a channel to the other pilots.

"Do we know how many mobile suits there are?" she asked. Commodore Athha's face came up on Sara's CIS.

"Not yet, but according to the bridge, the other ship is just deploying its linear catapult now, so we'll know soon enough." Sara nodded respectfully.

"Thank you, Cagalli-sama." The princess smiled and blushed at having the respectful term applied to her.

"That's really not necessary," she said, and Sara smiled back.

"I can't help it; it's tradition." Like many of Orb's inhabitants, Sara could trace her family line to the Republic of East Asia, and adding the appropriate suffixes to people's names was a habit she had been raised with. She was also amused by the way her superior officer became embarrassed whenever someone treated her with the respect due to a member of a noble family.

"How come I never get cool Japanese words applied to me?" Kenji's face popped up on the CIS.

"I apply the word 'baka' to you all the time," Sara replied, and Kenji shook his head.

"Aw, come on, Nakamura! That was unprovoked!" he protested. Sara was about to reply, but word suddenly came down from the bridge.

_"Six mobile suits have launched from the enemy ship. Thermal profiles match the ZGMF-600 GuAIZ."_

"Are we sure this isn't ZAFT?" Another face appeared on the CIS, and Sara recognized it as that of the Alliance pilot who had recently joined them. "I can understand how they could get the shuttle, but the destroyer and mobile suits…"

"Now is not the time, Ensign Doolittle," Cagalli replied. The pilot nodded, and the small crowd of faces disappeared from Sara's CIS.

_"MBF-02 connected to catapult,"_ the voice over the intercom reported._ "APU disconnected; Aile Striker, stand by. Systems, all green. Course clear; you are cleared for launch."_

"Cagalli Yula Athha, Strike Rouge, launching!" While the airlock had been opened and the vacuum allowed no sound, Sara's Astray conducted the vibrations as the electromagnetic catapult hurled Commodore Athha's mobile suit into space.

_"MBF-M1 connected to catapult. APU disconnected; systems, all green. Course clear; you are cleared for launch."_

"Athrun Zala, Astray, launching!"

_"GAT-01D1 connected to catapult. APU disconnected; systems, all green. Course clear; you are cleared for launch."_

"Roger Doolittle, Duel Dagger, taking off!" As the mechanized conveyer system maneuvered Sara's machine onto the catapult, she tightened her grip on the controls. For Kenji, Maria and her, this would be their first real battle together, and she whispered a quick prayer that they would all come back.

* * *

Commander Stanton counted six mobile suits deployed from the _Archangel_. Four of them were Orb's standard orange and white machines: "Astray" if he recalled correctly. Another was some sort of armor-plated suit that looked like a crude version of the Duel seized by the Le Creuset team a year and a half ago. It held the same beam rifle and shield as the Heliopolis machine, but the shoulder cannon seemed different, and the mobile suit's somewhat primitive look was characteristic of the Alliance's Dagger series.

The last machine, however, was the most imposing. Aside from its pink coloration, the MS was an exact replica of the legendary GAT-X105 Strike. Alex had seen both the original and the replica at Jachin, and he didn't like the idea of facing either one.

"Alright," he said, addressing the five pilots temporarily under his command. "Divide and conquer: try to split them up and take them one on one; the _Robespierre_ will provide cover fire. I want two units on the G-weapon. If our intelligence is correct, that's Athha's personal machine, so let's not take any chances. Remember, you engage _only_ until the shuttle has been retrieved. The second that happens, you get back to the ship. Is that understood?" A quick series of affirmatives greeted him. Stanton would have preferred to have his own team for this mission, but Lia was on the shuttle, Cooper had been killed on Earth and the Amigos were back at the station, so he was forced to work with a set of pilots whose names he didn't even know, bad conditions for any commanding officer.

Brushing his thoughts aside, the commander swung his mobile suit to the left as a railgun shot from the _Robespierre_ streaked past him, crashing against the shield of one of the M1s. The impact shattered the defensive item and pushed the machine backward. Firing all thrusters, Stanton accelerated toward the Astray group. Two of the other GuAIZs rushed the Orb suits, and the defenders formed a solid line, effective against the suits attacking from the front.

Alexander Stanton had not earned the rank of Commander by catering to his enemies' whims, however, and he broke away from the other two attackers, flying below the M1s in order to flank them. One of them noticed him and shifted its focus, raising its shield and sending several beam shots his way. Stanton was prepared; he took the electron fire on his shield and snapped his beam rifle up, targeting his enemy's head instead of the protected cockpit. An emerald beam streaked out from his rifle and caught the Orb pilot off guard, hitting the M1 in the face and shattering its head. The Astray twisted about like a wounded animal, and Stanton took the opening, firing at the now-exposed left elbow and blowing the arm off. The anti-beam shield spun away with the severed limb, leaving the mobile suit's cockpit exposed. Alex bore a surprised smile.

_I thought these Orb pilots were supposed to be __**better**__ than everyone else._

He trained his rifle for the kill shot, but one of his cockpit alarms warned him of an approaching enemy. Turning about, Alex swerved to the side just fast enough to avoid a downward slash from the beam saber of another of the M1s. Judging by the fact that it was missing its shield, it was probably the same machine that had taken the railgun slug earlier.

Throwing his suit into full reverse, Alex fired repeatedly at the Astray, but the pilot must have either seen what happened to the other Orb suit or anticipated the tactic, because he swerved back and forth, making it infuriatingly difficult to lock onto him.

* * *

Several hundred meters away, Roger's Duel Dagger traded beam shots with an attacking GuAIZ. Unable to get past his shield, the ZAFT-built mobile suit opened fire with its head-mounted CIWS guns, knowing that the Alliance machine couldn't block both the electron beams and the projectiles at the same time. Roger gave a half-smile.

"Yeah, like no one's ever tried _that_ one on me before." He kept his shield in position to block the beam shots, ignoring the machine gun fire entirely. The 76mm bullets were deadly against most targets, but the Dagger was well-protected. The rounds slammed into the Dagger's Fortrestra armor, penetrating a short distance into the material and rattling the mobile suit, but doing no meaningful damage. "Here's something you can't do," Roger said, locking on and firing a shot from his shoulder cannon. The explosive round obliterated the GuAIZ's left wing-mounted thruster, causing the machine to spin out of control for a second. Roger took the opportunity to fire a beam shot through the enemy mobile suit's battery, blowing it apart. Turning away from the dissipating explosion, he drew a bead on one of the two suits attacking Commodore Athha. Just before he fired, however, his cockpit alarms went off.

_What the—._ By the time Roger located the enemy suit behind him, its rifle barrel was already emitting the unmistakable green glow of a beam shot.

The electron beam erupted from the rifle. At the last moment, however, an Astray threw itself in between the blast and its target, and the shot scattered off the M1's shield. The Orb mobile suit fired repeatedly, and the GuAIZ backed off for the moment. Roger blew out the breath he'd been holding, and opened a communication channel to his rescuer.

"Thanks for the save there, um…"

"Nakamura," the Astray pilot responded. "Sara Nakamura, and think nothing of it." Roger smiled and shook his head.

"No can do, Nakamura. I owe you one," he said, before breaking off the conversation to return to the fight.

* * *

Cagalli backed up momentarily, twisting the Strike Rouge around in order to avoid some of the beam fire coming her way. Normally, she might have been able to outmaneuver one of the attackers and open fire, but the fact that they'd decided to flank her made life a lot more difficult. As it was, Cagalli could defend herself, but finding an opportunity to go on the offensive was another matter entirely.

Sparing a moment to survey the rest of the battle, she saw the two warships trading fire, the enemy's railguns and the _Archangel_'s linear cannons exchanging hypervelocity projectiles while the vessels' beam cannons sent deadly particle streams back and forth. Thus far, neither vessel had managed to score a decisive blow.

Elsewhere, the Duel Dagger and one of the Astrays were keeping the enemy busy, making little headway but keeping the two GuAIZs engaging them on the defensive. A few hundred meters from there, another Astray was locked in a vicious duel with a GuAIZ with some sort of red-white decal on its left shoulder. Cagalli recognized the IFF tag on the M1 as Athrun's.

A bright flash brought her out of her thoughts, and Cagalli realized that her opponents had been pushing her further and further upwards, moving her into the crossfire between the warships. A Gottfried blast had just missed her by about a meter: far too close for comfort. It did, however, give the princess an idea. She activated her com link.

"_Archangel_, can you track the Rouge with the Igelstellungs?"

"Yes," the voice giving the response sounded like Commander Herikawa.

"Good," Cagalli said. "When I give the signal, put a barrage into the area around me; I want the bullets as close as you can get them." The order sounded a bit confusing, no doubt, and there was a brief silence on the other side, but she finally received the affirmative she was looking for.

Without warning, she took her mobile suit down toward the GuAIZ duo. They opened fire, and Cagalli drew back, retreating along the Starboard side of the _Archangel_. Not understanding what was going on, the enemy suits followed. They were probably aware that they were straying into the firing range of the warship's CIWS, but the guns weren't tracking them specifically, and the Rouge was in the danger zone too, so the odds of a ship firing a barrage were rather low.

_At least normally,_ Cagalli thought as her opponents closed in. When they began to raise their beam rifles, she knew the time had come.

"Now!" The 75 millimeter Vulcan guns opened up, engulfing the three mobile suits in a storm of streaking tracer fire. Nearly a hundred rounds hit the Rouge, but what the enemy hadn't been counting on was the fact that the move only _looked_ suicidal. The Strike Rouge was equipped with Phase Shift armor, and the projectiles bounced off harmlessly. The GuAIZs, on the other hand, were not so lucky. One of them was torn to shreds, while the other pulled out of the line of fire, losing its beam rifle and right leg in the process. The pilot drew to a stop, probably thanking his lucky stars, at least until the Rouge came straight at him. He raised his shield to block the incoming beam fire, which was exactly what Cagalli had been counting on. Letting go of the beam rifle, she drew the Rouge's saber and swept it through a downward arc, catching the GuAIZ on the top of the head and splitting it down the middle. As the halves of the enemy mobile suit floated apart, Cagalli stowed the beam saber, retrieved her rifle and acquired a new target.

* * *

Commander Stanton was getting frustrated. No matter what he tried, he couldn't seem to gain the upper hand over this Astray. When he tried to circle around behind it, the M1 moved to stay facing him. When he opened fire, the mobile suit seemed to magically disappear from what had previously been a clean shot. What's more, the Astray kept getting closer, and by now it was nearly within saber range.

"Alright then," Stanton growled. "Let's see how you deal with this!" Momentarily swinging the GuAIZ's arms out of the way, Alex launched the EEQ7R extensional arrestors. Mechanical claws on the end of long cables, they were designed to grapple with enemy mobile suits. In a flash, the arrestors clamped onto the Astray's left arm, allowing Alex to twist his mobile suit and yank the Orb machine off balance. Retracting the arrestors, Alex brought his rifle up and fired.

The particle beam tore through the empty space where the Astray had been a split-second earlier.

Before he could fully grasp what was going on, Alex was aware of multiple alarms going off, and he pulled back in time to save his life. Instead of cleaving through his mobile suit, the M1's beam saber cut through his rifle instead.

"Who the hell are you?" he called out, surprising himself by actually pressing the button to send an open transmission.

"Lieutenant Commander Athrun Zala, Orb Navy," the Astray pilot replied, and Alex's eyes widened.

"So," he said, his voice heating with anger. "The turncoat appears."

"I don't know what you mean," Zala stated, prompting Alex to snort derisively.

"You know damn well what I mean. You were arguably the best pilot on the Le Creuset team and you turned against ZAFT and your own father!" He might not have his beam rifle anymore, but Alex wasn't out of tricks yet. The MA-MV03 composite shield on his GuAIZ was equipped with two beam claws mounted in the front of the shield itself. Extending the plasma blades, he swung at his opponent, his weapons crashing against the Astray's beam saber.

"My father died at Junius Seven!" Zala spat from his cockpit. "As for ZAFT, I may not work for them anymore, but I would never betray them!" Alex laughed at that statement.

"That simpering excuse for a chairwoman doesn't stand for ZAFT!" he shouted, slashing at the Astray again. He'd heard about how the younger Zala lacked his father's willingness to do what was necessary, but the way he claimed he still supported ZAFT was simply unbelievable.

Unfortunately, this matter would have to wait, as an alert popped up on Alex's CIS stating that the _Robespierre_ had retrieved Lia's shuttle. As much he wanted to finish the fight with Zala, he knew their forces were sorely outmatched, and he was aware of the fact that half of their pilots had already been killed. It was time to cut their losses and retreat. Alex opened fire with the GuAIZ's head-mounted Picus guns, the automatic rounds tearing into the Astray and forcing it to raise its arms to protect the cockpit. Alex used the break in swordplay to turn about and fall back.

"This isn't over, Zala," he stated as he sped back to the _Robespierre_. "The punishment for treason is death, and I'll make sure that sentence is carried out."

* * *

**Space station Azathoth, Debris Belt**

* * *

Kira had been waiting for an opportunity like this.

While he hadn't seen Dr. Sanford since their first meeting, white-garbed medical personnel had been in and out of his room several times, once every hour or two as far as he could tell. For the most part, they were coldly detached, taking down data from the equipment hooked up to Kira and then leaving. One of them, however, seemed different. She was a young girl, no more than eighteen years old, with a brown hair arranged in a short, boyish cut, and eyes the same color as her hair. The young brunette had introduced herself as Serena, and had blushed whenever Kira spoke to her. She also seemed to feel very bad about the restraints, apologizing profusely for Kira's discomfort. On her last visit, he had asked Serena to remove the bindings, and she had reluctantly agreed.

_"Just don't…well…don't hurt yourself, okay?"_ Apparently, she had been concerned that Kira might attempt suicide; he had almost laughed at that. Despite the circumstances, he wasn't in _that_ bad of a mental state. Besides, he had people out there to live for. He wanted to see Athrun again, he wanted to argue with Cagalli about how he should season his food, and he wanted to be there to blush when Flay teased him.

He felt some guilt over taking advantage of Serena's kindness, but he had to get out of here.

So, after she left the room, Kira waited for perhaps five minutes before getting out of bed and moving to the door. As luck would have it, the door had been left unlocked, and he was able to quietly exit the room and head off down the hallway.

The floor sloped up in both directions, as though Kira stood on the inside of a sphere or, more likely, a cylinder. Heliopolis had been designed that way, generating gravity through centrifugal force, and it seemed likely that he was on some sort of space station.

_How far did they take me?_

He wasn't sure how long he wandered the halls. On several occasions, he was forced to duck around corners to avoid armed patrols, but they passed by without incident. Finally, he came across a set of mechanical doors that turned out to open into an elevator.

Slipping inside, Kira noticed the standard array of buttons for different floors. Beside the array, a sheet of paper had been taped to the wall. The top of the printout read "Station Levels," and Kira quickly read through the list, finally stopping when his eyes ran across one particular listing.

Level 10: CS Holding Pens; Access to Shuttle Docking Bay.

Kira didn't know what the holding pens were for, but the shuttle bay probably represented his best chance of escape. Crossing his fingers, he pressed the button for the floor in question.

* * *

"Doctor Sanford," one of the technicians called from his position at the video monitors. "You want to take a look at this." The scientist had been listening to Squadron Commander Sabato's description of the fight the _Robespierre_ had gotten into with the _Archangel_, but something in the technician's voice told her that she did indeed want to see what he had to show her. Moving around the control room until she reached his station, she grabbed hold of the young man's chair and settled to the floor.

"What's the problem?" The technician's only response was to point to a screen displaying a security feed of one of the hallways on Level 10. For a moment, the area was empty, but suddenly a figure moved into the camera's view. Looking closer, Elizabeth recognized Kira Yamato, moving hesitantly down the corridor, and she sighed with frustration. "What is our subject doing down there?" The technician hesitated.

"I don't know," he said reluctantly. It had been a stupid question anyway. Yamato had obviously escaped from his room after the most recent checkup.

"Which medical officer was with him most recently?" The technician tapped at a computer console nearby, bringing the desired information up on the screen.

"Serena Ridley was the most recent, Doctor." Sanford felt a pang of irritation at this.

_I ought to slip a hormonal suppressant into that girl's next meal._ Ridley had mentioned that she felt bad about physically restraining Yamato, which meant that she probably took the bindings off, facilitating his escape. Elizabeth made a mental note to talk to the young woman about clinical detachment later. For now, her primary concern was securing her subject.

"Why didn't we catch him on camera before?" she asked, at which the technician shook his head.

"We don't have complete coverage with the security cameras yet, but he probably went past more than one on his way down. In all probability, he was likely overlooked due to the excitement over the battle." Dr. Sanford rubbed her forehead, wondering if the incompetence of one's coworkers was capable of physically inducing migraines. Her rumination was interrupted when the technician spoke again. "Doctor, we have a patrol coming that way; we can just intercept him." Elizabeth was about to answer in the affirmative when she noticed just where Yamato was.

_What are the odds of that?_

"How has he been avoiding the patrols thus far?"

"He's probably just ducked into side halls or unoccupied rooms." That was exactly what she had wanted to hear.

"Deactivate the key code on the CS-M25 holding pen." The technician gave her a shocked look, and she simply shrugged in response. "It'll be a learning experience for him. I'm heading down there now."

* * *

The sounds of footsteps alerted Kira to an approaching patrol. He backed up, scanning the hallway for a branch-off or open door, but avenues of escape seemed nonexistent on this floor. There were several heavy metal doors lining the walls, but each of them had an electronic keypad sitting to its right, and Kira knew that he couldn't possibly hack his way in; as skilled a programmer as he was, he'd never hacked anything in his life.

_There must be an open door somewhere._

Above each of the keypads was a light, apparently indicating whether the door in question was locked or unlocked. While almost all of the lights were red, there was indeed one that shined a blessed emerald hue. As the footsteps came closer, Kira ran over to the door. "CS-M25" was inscribed on the door itself, but the letters and numbers weren't ringing any bells for Kira, and as he caught sight of several pairs of feet coming "down" the hall to his right, he knew there was no time to consider them. Kira pressed the "Enter" key on the pad next to the door, ducking inside as soon as the portal slid open. Perhaps a second later, the door slid shut automatically, leaving him in darkness.

After a moment, the sounds of the guards came and went, and Kira felt around in the dark for a light switch. Finding nothing near the door itself, he went further into the room, running his hand along the wall. He still couldn't find a light switch, and to his growing alarm, there didn't seem to be any way to open the door from inside either.

"Okay," he told himself. "There must be a way out of the room, so let's just think for a second. Let's just—."

_Tick._

Kira thought for a moment that he might have imagined the noise, but then it repeated itself.

_Tick-tick, tick-tick._

The noise was akin to what you might get by tapping the point of a knife or some other sharp object against the metal floor. Turning away from the wall, Kira strained to pierce the darkness of the room.

_Tick-tick, tick-tick, tick-tick._

The sounds were getting closer, and Kira realized they were coming from more than one direction. One set of sounds came from almost straight ahead of him, another from somewhere off to his left, and a third from his right. The noises were getting closer, and Kira now realized that he could hear the soft sounds of breathing in the darkness around him. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he suddenly realized that the noises he was hearing were _footsteps_, and that the clicking was the result of long nails or claws striking against the floor.

Kira began moving back toward the door. There had to be a panel that would let him out. He couldn't stay here any longer; armed guards were infinitely preferable to whatever was in the room with him now, getting closer with every passing second.

He turned around and bolted for the door, but froze in his tracks after moving only a few feet.

One of them had gotten between him and the door. Kira couldn't see or hear it so much as he could _feel_ it: a looming shape, bigger than he was and radiating menace from every pore. It released a deep, venomous hiss, like what might come out of a big snake or a crocodile, and Kira jumped back at the sudden noise. He backed up, but another hiss came out of the darkness behind him, and then another from his left, and then a piercing alien shriek that made his blood run cold. He realized that he had less than a meter of space on all sides, and that they were still getting closer. While he couldn't be sure if he was imagining it or not, Kira thought he saw a faint glimmer of light reflecting off a set of needle-like teeth just in front of him.

Abruptly, another hiss filled the room, but this one was different. This was the sound of hydraulics working, and the sudden light from the hallway forced Kira to squint.

"Go back." Kira recognized the voice of Dr. Sanford, and he heard the clicking of claws against metal again, only this time the sounds were moving away from him. Finally forcing his eyes open, Kira saw the red-eyed scientist silhouetted in the open doorway.

"The Eviscerators are scheduled to be fed in a little under an hour," she said. "Now, either you can come quietly back to your room, or I can shut this door again and feed them early." The matter-of-fact tone Dr. Sanford used for the statement only served to drive her point home more effectively. She offered her hand, and Kira took it, stepping back out into the hallway and not turning around until the door had shut behind him.

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Bridge**

* * *

"It seems pretty clear that we're dealing with ZAFT deserters," Athrun said. He was addressing Cagalli, Roger and the three Astray pilots, but Captain Ramius was listening intently as well.

"That would explain where they got all that ZAFT tech," Roger said. "They just took it with them when they left."

"So what does this mean for us?" The question had come from Ensign Nakamura. She was dressed in a standard Orb uniform, and her silken hair ran down behind her shoulders like a black waterfall.

"It doesn't mean anything at the moment," Captain Ramius replied. "Our mission remains the same. A _Nazca_ is faster than we are, but we still have them on our sensors, and they'll have to slow down once they enter the debris belt." Given the speed the ships were traveling at, that would happen soon. "The enemy ship's reactor gives it a very long operating time, which means it doesn't have to lead us back to its home base."

"So we have to capture and interrogate?" Cagalli asked.

"We'll try to get them to surrender," Murrue replied. "We're the better-armed ship, but boarding and capturing an enemy vessel is never an easy thing to do. Unfortunately, Kenji, repairs on your Astray aren't complete yet, so you won't be able to sortie on the next mission." Kenji Tiran groaned, running a hand through his orange-brown hair.

"Well, if that's the price to make sure the beautiful Sara Nakamura remains safe…" he started, but his comrade, a Hispanic woman with curly, shoulder-length brown hair, reached out and slapped him on the back of the head.

"No, it's the price of letting your guard down, pendejo!" She laughed, and Athrun did as well. Maria's family had moved to Orb from the USSA fifteen years ago, when she was seven years of age, but she was as patriotic about her adopted homeland as any Orb native. She got on quite well with her teammates, even if she did hassle Kenji constantly, and she was a fine pilot as well. Roger interrupted the banter between the pilots.

"Ensign Nakamura," he said, prompting the older woman to turn to face him. "I just wanted to thank you again for watching out for me back there."

"I have a boyfriend, you know." The response seemed to puzzle Roger.

"Uh…that wasn't what I meant," he said uncertainly, and Kenji raised his hand.

"That's technically my fault," he said. Maria slapped him again, and he shot her an irritated look. Athrun just shook his head and looked over at Cagalli. She laughed.

"And to think, they're older than we are."

* * *

_**Robespierre**_**, Pilots' Ready Room/Open Space**

* * *

"Are we at the target area?" Commander Stanton asked.

_"Yes,"_ the reply came over the intercom. Stanton nodded.

"Good. Deploy the linear catapult and activate the Strikers on my command." The _Archangel_ had hailed them about ten minutes ago, asking that they cease movement and come peacefully. The upside of that would be that the Legged Ship wouldn't blow the _Robespierre_ to pieces, but the downside was that they would undoubtedly be questioned about who they were working for, and Stanton was not ready to hand over the location of Azathoth yet, not while there were still other options.

He turned to Lia, now fully dressed in her flight suit. "Watch yourself out there. I know I don't have to remind you, but this is the _Archangel_ we're talking about here." Lia nodded solemnly. She had decided that she wanted to fly on this latest skirmish. It would be short if everything went according to plan, but they would need all the skill they could muster, and she was indisputably better than the relatively inexperienced pilots Alex had flown with during the last fight.

_"Commander Stanton,"_ the intercom announced. _"The _Archangel _has closed to striking distance; mobile suits are launching from its catapults."_

"Then I guess it's time we followed their example." He turned back to Lia. "I know you want a piece of Zala too, but this is about losing our pursuers, so let's just try to make this work. That bastard will get his due eventually." Lia nodded.

"I understand, Commander."

* * *

"Alright," Athrun said. "They're launching. We can probably use the debris for cover, but so can they, so keep your eyes peeled."

"Understood," Cagalli replied.

"Copy that, Ath," Roger said. There was a momentary pause.

"Did you just call me 'Ath'?" Further discussion of Ensign Doolittle's nicknaming habits would have to wait, because the three remaining GuAIZs were closing in. "Here we go."

"Let's dance!" Roger shouted from the cockpit of his Duel Dagger, opening the shoulder-mounted missile launcher and sending two explosives streaking towards the nearest enemy mobile suit. The GuAIZ opened fire with its CIWS, detonating the missiles before they could contact it. The enemy suit extended its beam claws and rushed the Dagger. Athrun considered helping out, but the GuAIZ with the decal, a red image of a snake eating its own tail set on a white background, was already closing in, raising its beam rifle.

"How'd you recognize me?" Athrun asked, broadcasting an open transmission.

"Truth be told, Zala, it was a lucky guess." The GuAIZ opened fire, beams pounding on the Astray's shield. "However, I'm not really in the mood to talk right now."

"That's good," Athrun said. "Neither are we." As if to punctuate his statement, the _Archangel_'s Gottfrieds opened fire, and four powerful electron streams tore into the _Nazca_-class ship's side engines, causing massive explosions.

* * *

"You are really starting to piss me off!" Roger shouted, trying to draw a bead on the GuAIZ. The Earth Forces pilot considered himself a fairly skilled warrior; no Mu La Flaga of course, but not exactly cannon fodder either. Nevertheless, this enemy mobile suit was frustrating him to no end. Sara and Roger had gone after the suit as soon as combat had begun, but instead of attacking at range like the enemies from the last fight, this particular pilot closed for melee immediately, crossing blades with Sara and keeping her between Roger and any chance of a clean shot. Every time he tried to circle around and fire, the GuAIZ turned in an opposing direction, forcing Sara to turn as well, lest she leave herself open to the enemy's beam claws.

The three mobile suits were now heading into a denser region of debris. Ahead of them were two massive solar panels, probably photovoltaic power sources for some old satellite or early space station. The two semi-reflective sheets were each the better part of a thousand feet on a side, and floated almost parallel to each other. Breaking away from Sara's Astray, the GuAIZ moved into the space between the panels, images of the enemy suit reflected in the smooth material above and below it. Roger smiled, moving in after it.

_You're mine now,_ he thought as he locked on with beam rifle, shoulder cannon and missiles. There would be no way for the enemy to block all of it.

"Come into my parlor," a female voice said over the communications channel. Roger only had a moment to contemplate what the literary allusion meant before the GuAIZ fired its beam rifle. It didn't shoot at Roger or Sara, who had moved in beside him, but at the solar panels themselves. Four particle beams blew through the upper and lower panels, and the resulting explosions sprayed the area with glassy shards.

"Whoa!" Roger yelled as he made full use of the Dagger's extra Fortrestra thrusters to maneuver among the high-speed fragments. Some of them still tore gashes in the armor, and a few bit into the legs of Sara's mobile suit, although her shield kept the main body safe. "You alright, Nakamura?"

"I'm reading a hydraulic failure on my suit's left leg, but nothing too bad." Roger moved to follow the rapidly retreating GuAIZ and realized that the shots, having struck the solar panels behind Sara and him, had knocked the massive sheets into motion. The GuAIZ pulled out from between the panels just as the edges slammed together, showering Roger and Sara with more shattered material and cutting them off from their opponent.

"Do you want to go around and come out one on either side?" Roger asked. Sara paused for only a moment before replying, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"I say we go straight through," she said, and Roger laughed.

"Copy that," he said, firing off four missiles, a cannon round and a shot from his beam rifle. Sara added several beam shots of her own, and the barrier in front of them disintegrated in the ensuing fireball. Using the explosion as cover, they were able to avoid taking fire as they emerged on the other side. The enemy suit had been waiting above the solar panels, and promptly opened fire as the Astray and the Duel Dagger approached it. "I've got to hand it to you," Roger said through the com link. "That was a pretty nice trick."

"I'm hardly the best the Advent Faction has to offer," the enemy pilot said. "Of course, I guess anything looks clever to Earth Forces scum like you." Roger would have to run that "Advent Faction" line by Athrun later, but the second statement was what really stuck.

"Aw, come on!" Roger protested. "I'm the only Alliance officer here and you've still got to pick on me?" Everyone else here was from Orb, but they had to single him out, didn't they? Athrun's voice suddenly came over the com link.

"These people are hard-liners, Roger," he said. "Reasoning with them is going to be difficult at best."

"Fine words coming from someone who couldn't see the Naturals for the threat they are!" Roger couldn't even guess who this was.

"How many people are _on_ this frequency?" he yelled out. Frustrated, he returned to firing on the enemy MS.

* * *

Athrun brought the M1's beam saber down on the command GuAIZ; his opponent barely managed to block the attack with the shield. The machines broke apart for a moment, and the enemy mobile suit launched its extensional arrestors again, but it didn't work this time. An emerald beam streaked out, destroying both mechanical claws before they could reach their target. Athrun caught sight of the Strike Rouge lowering its beam rifle about one hundred meters away.

"You're outnumbered and outmatched," Athrun said. "You know you can't win this." The enemy's response was surprisingly calm.

"I'm aware of that," he said. "Luckily, we don't have to win. We just have to get you far enough away from your ship. Activate the Strikers now."

* * *

Maria Velasquez was closing in on the GuAIZ she'd been chasing when she saw the debris around her begin to move. Catching it in her peripheral vision, she initially dismissed it as her imagination. When the mobile suit broke off combat and another piece of debris came to life, she realized it was no trick of the mind.

The objects in question were barrel-shaped; dull orange and white in color. They had been floating motionless, but now they took off, tiny puffs of compressed gas spouting from various locations on their surfaces. Ignoring Maria's Astray entirely, the two objects sped off in another direction. For a moment, their course didn't really register, and she started to move off toward the retreating mobile suit. Then it hit her.

The objects were headed straight for the _Archangel_.

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Bridge**

* * *

"Captain, we have at least three confirmed hull breaches," David Herikawa called out. "Decompression alarms are going off in four more locations." Murrue swore. The objects had come out of the debris around them perhaps two minutes ago. While they were rougher-edged than what she remembered, the attacking machines looked almost exactly like the wired gunbarrels from a Moebius Zero. The Gottfrieds and Valiants weren't anywhere near fast enough to target them, and even the Igelstellungs were having difficulty.

A gunbarrel moved into position in front of the ship. The front swung open to reveal a snub-nosed weapon, and the yellow streak of a hypervelocity projectile flashed out.

The bridge shuddered.

CIWS rounds ripped through the vacuum, but the machine had already moved out of the line of fire. Nearly as quickly as it had gone, another appeared, its cannon aimed directly into the bridge.

Before it could fire, however, a beam shot tore through the gunbarrel, blowing it to pieces. The fading explosion revealed an Astray, and Maria Velasquez's voice came across the bridge speakers.

"Sorry it took me so long," she said, turning around to block another projectile with her shield.

"Do you know where the others are?" Murrue asked.

"They were right behind me…" Velasquez said, and then another gunbarrel exploded behind her. The Strike Rouge and another M1 swooped into view.

"Doolittle and Nakamura are on their way," Cagalli said. "They should be here soon."

* * *

**Open Space**

* * *

Cagalli drew back as two more gunbarrels came around the _Archangel_ and moved to circle Athrun and her. As the nearest machine opened and extended its cannon, Cagalli fired the Rouge's vernier thrusters, pulling around the gunbarrel to keep it from firing. What she hadn't expected, however, was for the machine to launch two missiles from beneath the cannon. She fired her CIWS guns, destroying the explosives, but the gunbarrel fired through the explosion, and the projectile struck the Rouge directly over the cockpit. The Phase Shift saved Cagalli's life, but the cockpit still shook fiercely. She raised the beam rifle, but the gunbarrel had already moved to another position, to her left and slightly above her, and was ready to fire again.

A shot from Athrun's beam rifle destroyed the machine, and Cagalli smiled slightly, but then she noticed the second gunbarrel darting into position behind the Astray.

Cagalli's blood ran cold. Athrun's M1 didn't have PS armor; the projectile would rip straight through him, and there was no way she could lock onto the threatening machine in time.

"Athrun!" A split-second before it could fire, the gunbarrel was destroyed, and the blast cleared to reveal an Astray with damaged lower legs.

"Sara," Athrun said. While no one else would have caught it, Cagalli could hear the slight tremor in his voice after his close call. "Where's Roger?"

"OOOOOH MY GOD!" Roger's Dagger streaked into view, moving in reverse as it was attacked by two gunbarrels simultaneously. The Alliance mobile suit's shield was a crumpled mess, having been hammered with multiple projectile impacts, and the Fortrestra armor was pockmarked with holes blown open by the slugs. Cagalli decided to lend a hand, and when the gunbarrels moved to flank Roger, she locked onto the nearest one and fired, destroying it. Capable of focusing on just one opponent now, Roger fired the massive grenade launcher underneath his beam rifle, and the explosive blew the remaining gunbarrel apart.

"Ensign Doolittle," Captain Ramius contacted them from the bridge. "That's Alliance technology. Do you recognize it?" There was a momentary pause, probably while Roger caught his breath.

"Yeah," he finally said. "They're Gunbarrel Strikers, based on the wired gunbarrels for the Moebius Zero; standard armament is a railgun, and I think they've got missiles too. They're supposed to dock with 105 Daggers, but I guess our friends have installed some sort of advanced computer control system."

"We're still taking fire from two of these things," the captain responded. "Circle around to the rear of the ship and take them out." After a quick series of affirmatives, the mobile suits swept around the warship, coming upon two more gunbarrels busy stabbing the vessel with railgun slugs.

With five mobile suits against two automated weapons, the fight was over fairly quickly.

As the final explosion dissipated, Cagalli surveyed the damage to the _Archangel_. There were holes at various points on the hull, but the engines remained intact, and the weapons systems also seemed undamaged.

"I don't understand," she said. "These things weren't that hard to put down, so what made them think the gunbarrels would destroy the _Archangel_ when their mobile suits couldn't?" Captain Ramius's voice came across Cagalli's cockpit speakers.

"I don't think they were trying to kill us," she said. "The _Nazca_-class has disappeared from our sensors."

"What?" Athrun sounded stunned. "It looked like you inflicted some serious damage at the start of the fight."

"Maybe they weren't that badly damaged, or maybe they went dark, turning off all their electronics and using the debris to mask their radar signature, but the result is the same." Disgust was clearly audible in her voice. "For now, we've lost them."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Well, sorry it took me so long to get this to you guys. Part of the delay is due to the fact that my computer caught a virus, so that had to be dealt with. Another part has to do with the fact that I am a member of an Anime Club on my campus (don't ask). Our unofficial club leader introduced this new (well, new to us) show called _Tsukihime_. My first thought was "Oh, please, not another vampire show." Of course, that was before I got totally hooked on it, and Shiki and Arcueid made it onto my Favorite Pairings list.

Anyway, as to the chapter itself, I hope the length doesn't bother you (at seventeen pages, its a little over double the length of my longest previous chapter). Writing this actually made me laugh a couple times. I kind of gave an evil cackle when I wrote Dr. Sandford's line about a "learning experience" for Kira, and the good guys definitely got quite a few good lines in as well. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it!

Before anyone says anything, I should also mention that I have in no way altered the rather...well...evil nature of the Extended Program. Roger was given a somewhat censored explanation of how the program works. While he's been at training facilities, he's never actually seen the labs where the children are, for lack of a better term, put through their paces.

Next Chapter: Lacus and Andrew have arrived in Orb, and they may have another way of tracking the Advent Faction back to their base.


	5. Path of Corruption

Disclaimer: I don't own _Gundam SEED_ or any of its characters. Dr. Elizabeth Sanford, Serena Ridley, Ensigns Jason Pryce and Richard Kane, Squadron Commander Javier Sabato, Captain Hitomi Kaido and the _Starglider_, as well as Ensign Roger Doolittle are my own creations.

Chapter 5: Path of Corruption

* * *

**September 14, CE 72**

* * *

It was difficult for Lacus to remember when she had last been this impatient. The three day trip from the PLANTs to Earth had been agonizing; her worry over Kira had diminished, overshadowed by a fierce determination to do something to help. That drive had only been increased when, nearing the Earth, they had received word from Orb that the _Archangel_ had lost track of the kidnappers in the debris belt. After that, Lacus had spent every waking moment of her trip trying to think of ways she could aid the rescuers.

By the time their transport touched down at Orb, she had the beginnings of a plan.

"In order to gain the weapons they used, the kidnappers must have a supplier," Lacus said as they walked down the tarmac toward the military command center. Beside her, Captain Waltfeld nodded.

"The prevailing thought is that they gain their Alliance technology from black market purchases," he said. Lacus meant to continue, but Waltfeld finished her thought for her. "We find out where the supplies are coming from, and we can find out where they're going." He smiled at the pink-haired Coordinator's slightly surprised look. "You don't win battles by having a slow mind." Lacus smiled a little.

"Then let us see what we can learn," she said as they passed through a set of sliding doors and entered the command center.

The main room was rectangular in shape, with the entire front wall dedicated to massive video screens that displayed radar and satellite images of the islands composing Orb. The first floor of the command center held many computer terminals, each one manned by a uniformed technician. About four meters above the floor, a walkway ran the circumference of the room, creating a sort of quasi-second floor. The walls here were also lined with computers and control panels, some for display and some for communications. It was on the second floor that Colonel Soga stood, the fairly nondescript man quietly surveying the room. He saluted when he caught sight of Waltfeld and Lacus.

"Captain Waltfeld," he said quickly.

"Colonel," Waltfeld replied. Lacus didn't want to waste any time, and as soon as introductions had been made, she spoke up.

"Colonel Soga," she asked. "Has there been any progress toward tracking the kidnappers, on your end of things, I mean?" Soga shook his head.

"At the moment, the only evidence we have is the wreckage of the Alliance machine they used at Athha Manor, along with the tranquilizer dart that was used on the Allster girl. The problem is that neither one of those pieces of technology was obtained through conventional means, so we can't trace them back to the actual purchase." Lacus thought for a moment, and then looked at Waltfeld.

"These things were purchased on the black market," she said. "Captain, I've been informed that while you were stationed in Banadiya, you had some experience with black market weapons trading." The Desert Tiger grinned and laughed slightly.

"It wasn't the friendliest contact," he said. "The merchants in question were responsible for arming the groups that fought the ZAFT occupation and gave my soldiers no small amount of trouble." Waltfeld waited for a moment before shrugging. "Still, I did come to know some people in the business fairly well in an attempt to cut off supply routes." Lacus nodded, eyes sharply focused. That had been exactly what she had hoped for, and having the former ZAFT officer support her line of thinking gave the pink princess some much-needed relief. Colonel Soga spoke next.

"You think your African contacts can tell us anything, Captain?" he asked Waltfeld. The one-eyed ace replied without hesitation.

"I'd imagine they know something. Regardless, it's our best option for now."

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Crew Quarters**

* * *

While day and night didn't really exist in space, there was time allotted for sleep, and most of the crew had turned in already. Murrue was on her way back to her room, ready for some much-needed rest, when she found Flay sitting in the hallway. The redhead was leaning against the door to her own quarters, her expression blank. Murrue was tempted to simply continue on and trust that Flay would be fine, but she knew that wouldn't be the right thing to do, not as a captain; not as a friend.

During the war, when the children had found themselves trapped on the _Archangel_, Flay had taken it the hardest. Separated from her friends and forced to watch her father die, the girl had been put through Hell. Murrue and Kira spent plenty of time together at work these days, and while the young Coordinator hadn't told her all the details, Murrue had gathered that Flay had done some things back then that she had regretted ever since. A large part of the problem had been that at the time, almost no one had noticed what was happening to Flay. Plenty of people had realized that something strange was taking place, of course, but they had all thought of it as unimportant, and had allowed Flay's situation to worsen over time.

So now, instead of trusting that the girl would be alright, Murrue walked over and sat down on the floor beside her.

"Hey," the captain said gently. "Why are you out here?" Flay's eyes remained on the silver necklace she was fiddling with.

"I couldn't sleep," she answered quietly. Soft as her voice was, fatigue and sadness were audible in it. Murrue put a hand on Flay's shoulder.

"Is there any way I can help?" the older woman asked. "After all," she added with a note of humor, "It's kind of important not to have my communications officer dozing off at her post from lack of sleep." The teen looked away from the necklace, meeting Murrue's gaze, and gave an apologetic smile.

"I…" she began, and then stopped herself. After hesitating for a few seconds, she seemed to have gathered her courage enough to continue.

"I don't sleep that well without Kira," she said. "When I was in the hospital, he'd always sit next to my bed, and he'd hold my hand or lay his head on my shoulder, and we'd fall asleep together. But now…" Flay squeezed her eyes shut, and when she spoke again, Murrue could tell that she was working hard to keep her voice steady. "I just want him to be okay," she finished. Murrue gestured to the necklace, which Flay continued to hold on to.

"Did Kira get you that?" Murrue asked. Flay nodded, holding the item of jewelry out for her to see. The silver chain held a pendant made of the same metal, into which a ruby and an amethyst were set.

"I spent my sixteenth birthday in the hospital," Flay said softly. "Back before the war, I used to have big parties with all my friends and lots of presents, but this year it was just me." She looked at the necklace again. "I was…well, I just felt so alone. I didn't really say anything to Kira, but I guess he could tell that I was upset. He bought me this necklace as a special birthday present; he said I'll never be alone as long as I have him." The redhead smiled at the memory, and Murrue gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"He'll be fine," the brunette said. "Kira's lived through things that would kill most people; Cagalli's told me that some of the students at the training center have started calling him 'Jesus Yamato'." The two women shared a laugh at that, and Murrue got to her feet, quietly helping Flay to do the same. "Now try to get some sleep, okay?" Flay nodded quietly, and then returned to her quarters.

* * *

**Space station Azathoth, Debris Belt**

* * *

_"Kira?" she called, standing in the empty hallway. The enemy was approaching and Kira needed to get to the Strike. Still, he turned when she called his name. Flay's grey-blue eyes met his for a moment, and then she turned her gaze toward the floor, as though unable to look at him. "Kira…I—," she started, but he cut her off._

_ "Not now," Kira said quickly, and then gave her a smile. "We'll talk when I get back."_

_ She needed to talk._

_ She needed his help._

_ But he left her alone._

_ The particle beam scattered off the Freedom's shield. Flay looked out at him, tears gathering in her eyes. She was crying because she was happy to see him; because she loved him._

_ But he wasn't watching out for her._

_ The DRAGOON pod fired; the electron beam tore through the shuttle. Flay was thrown about as explosions rocked the spacecraft._

_ All she wanted to do was apologize; to tell him how she really felt for him._

_ But he failed her again._

_ He fell against her, unable to support himself as gunfire resonated through the parking lot._

_ Flay was weak._

_ She was still recovering from the treatment._

_ They might hurt her._

_ But Kira couldn't even stay awake for her, and now she might be…Flay might be…_

_ No!_

Kira jolted awake, sweat coating his body. He was back in his room, restraints once again binding his arms, and the short-haired brunette from before, Serena if he remembered correctly, was standing in the doorway, a concerned look on her face.

"I didn't mean to startle you," she said. Kira shook his head. She might be working with his captors, but Serena didn't seem like a bad person, and he didn't want to worry her. She walked into the room, followed by two men armed with assault rifles. Dr. Sanford brought up the rear, hands folded behind her back. Serena walked up to the side of the bed and began undoing Kira's restraints. At this, the guards trained their rifles on him.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Well," Serena answered, "I thought that the reason you tried to leave before, even though I was trying to help you feel less like a prisoner, is that you don't know what you're here for. I figured that you might feel better if we explained why we need you." Apparently, Serena had never been informed that they'd kidnapped Kira. The young Coordinator's expression and tone remained guarded.

"Then what are the armed guards for?" Serena hesitated, so Dr. Sanford answered his question.

"I required that they be here," she said. "Miss Ridley trusts you not to try another escape attempt. I'm not that naïve." After releasing him from his restraints, the two women and the guards lead Kira down a series of halls, finally entering a room perhaps eight meters on a side. At the center of the room was a chair similar to what one might find in a doctor's office, with a high-powered light above it for examinations, as well as computer devices along the sides for monitoring the patient. Shelves along the walls held test tubes and medical equipment, and a large device that Kira didn't recognize sat fairly near the entrance. The far wall held a large window, revealing a room beyond that housed several large simulators. Dr. Sanford walked over to the glass and pressed a button beneath the window, holding it down as she spoke.

"Kane and Pryce, viral infusions are ready." Kira looked over at Serena, who hastened to clarify.

"Are you familiar with gene therapy?" she asked. Kira nodded.

"It's how Coordinators are created, isn't it?"

"Exactly," she said, smiling. "A customized virus is used to insert the genes that you want into the cells of the subject. It's usually done in the womb, since it's easier to change the genes of a few cells than it is to change those of the billions of cells in an adult. What we're doing here, on the other hand, is gene therapy designed for adult humans." Kira paused for a moment.

"Why do you need me for that?" Serena shook her head.

"We're not trying to _invent_ gene therapy for adults; we've already got that. You know how we took blood and tissue samples from you?" Kira nodded. The medical technicians had drawn several vials of blood, as well as a more painful procedure resulting in the extraction of a skin sample from his arm.

"Well, you have the same implants as other Coordinators, but because of variables in the mother's body, be they temperature, pH or something else, some percentage of the implanted genes aren't transcribed right, so the Coordinator doesn't end up with the desired gene or the trait it codes for. You were brought to term in an artificial womb, so all of your genes were properly implanted. We're trying to give some of your gifts to other people, as a sort of improvement on the standard Coordinator treatment. We take some of your genes, not the whole DNA strand obviously, and use a virus to insert them into a subject." She stopped talking as the two men who had emerged from the simulators entered the room. Both were about 183 centimeters tall, and looked to be in their early to mid twenties. The first had brown eyes and short black hair, while the second had bright blue eyes and neck-length, light blonde hair. The blonde wore a red ZAFT uniform, while the black-haired man wore a grey muscle shirt and long, nondescript beige pants. Dr. Sanford inserted a hypodermic needle into the blonde's arm, injecting a translucent yellow fluid. The black-haired man broke the silence.

"Who's the kid?" he said, nodding in Kira's direction. Sanford finished with the first injection, picked up another syringe from a metal tray next to the medical chair and inserted the needle into the black-haired man's arm.

"You know of my work with Doctor Hibiki," she said. "That boy is the result." The blonde's eyebrows rose, and he took a few steps toward Kira.

"So this is the Ultimate Coordinator," he said. "This is the peak of our kind." His voice held amusement, as well as a certain appreciation, like what one might express for a work of art.

"And who are you?" Kira asked bluntly. He noticed that Serena didn't chide him for his manners. In fact, she seemed a little nervous around the two young men. Kira's attention was brought back to the blonde when he laughed and shook his head.

"My apologies; it's just a little awe-inspiring to see the end result of Hibiki and his colleagues' work. I'm Jason Pryce, and my less civilized associate over there is Richard Kane." The black-haired individual, Kane, gave Pryce the finger. He then turned his gaze on Kira.

"Somehow I expected the Ultimate Coordinator to look more 'ultimate'; you're just a kid." Pryce rolled his eyes at the remark, and Dr. Sanford spoke up as she withdrew the needle from Kane's arm.

"This 'kid' is perhaps the greatest mobile suit pilot of the Cosmic Era," she said. "If you wish to attain the next stage, you are going to need to have his abilities added to your own." Kira looked over at Serena.

"What's the 'next stage'?" he asked. The brunette's brow furrowed.

"I don't know," she replied. "Doctor Sanford is a genius, but she's rather eccentric." The girl was facing Kira, so she didn't witness Sanford turning away from Kane and cocking an eyebrow at her remark. Serena leaned in close and whispered her next statement. "Between you and me, I also think she's kind of creepy." Kira managed to suppress the bitter laugh that sought to escape him. He remembered very well how Dr. Sanford had threatened to leave him in the holding pen with those _things_ a few days ago. "Creepy" was an understatement. Still, the statement served to reinforce the notion that Serena wasn't fully aware of what was going on here, and that, if fully informed, she might yet prove to be an ally.

"You will have to wait for at least eight hours for the virus to do its work," Dr. Sanford stated, talking to Pryce and Kane. "After that, you are to return here for another test run in the simulators. How are your respective machines handling thus far?"

"Performance continues to improve," Pryce said levelly. "It does seem to be tapering off though, and I believe I'm nearing the limits of the Herald's capabilities." Sanford nodded.

"That was expected. Your treatment is nearly complete." She looked at Kane next.

"Well, I don't know what I'm doing differently from Pretty Boy here," he said, "but the Thanatos is still a bitch to handle." Sanford nodded again.

"According to Squadron Commander Sabato, it's a higher-sensitivity OS than the Herald's. Also, your genetic modifications are far more extensive." She turned to Serena now. "I trust that Kira has seen all that he needs to see, Miss Ridley." Serena nodded, a little more nervous now that Sanford was actually looking at her. The younger woman turned to Kira.

"Okay," she said quietly. "Let's go." As they left the room and found their way back through the hallways to Kira's room, Serena glanced back at the guards behind them, and then gave him a slightly apologetic look. "I know this is very hard for you; Doctor Sanford told me you had to be tranquilized to be brought here, but try to understand that we're working to help humankind reach its full potential." Kira doubted Dr. Sanford's intentions were anything so noble. Pryce and Kane had been testing to fly mobile suits, and the way he had been acquired suggested to Kira that his captors had something more aggressive in mind. As they returned to his room, Kira decided that the next time he was alone with Serena, he would tell her how his abductors hadn't just tranquilized him, but had opened fire on civilians, and he would hope that she could help him in some way.

* * *

**Onogoro Island, Orb National Defense Headquarters**

* * *

Lacus sat on a bench in the central control room, sipping from a cup of tea one of the soldiers had brought her. Captain Waltfeld had spent the last few hours getting in touch with his old contacts from Banadiya, discussing recent illegal purchases. It seemed like a simple assignment. Look for purchases that were out of the ordinary and figure out who was buying. What slowed progress was the fact that this was the black market; _every_ purchase was out of the ordinary. Waltfeld and intelligence agents working with him had to look for patterns, seeing not only what was being bought, but what all the purchased items could be used for.

So, once again, Lacus had to wait. During her career as a singer and as a political figure, she had learned to project a calm appearance, remaining collected and good-natured in even the darkest times. Now, however, there was no one watching, and the pink princess's face clearly expressed the distress she was feeling.

Every hour that passed put Kira in more danger; every hour decreased the odds of his survival. While Athrun was still a good friend of hers, Kira was even closer. They weren't related, but he treated Lacus as family. He was very much a brother to her.

She gripped her teacup a little tighter at that.

It wasn't that Lacus wasn't happy for Kira. Indeed, she had paid several visits to Kira over the past year, and she was very glad that he and Flay were happy together. It was just that every so often, she wished that Kira would love her the way he loved Flay.

She wished the both of them nothing but happiness, but it was very lonely being the perfect girl.

She was drawn from her melancholy reverie when Waltfeld entered the room, a smile on his face.

"I think we have something," he said. Lacus' expression brightened.

"What did you find out?" she asked. Waltfeld sat next to her before continuing.

"There's a group that's been shipping fairly mundane items, food, water and medical supplies, to a point in the Debris Belt where they're picked up by their client. There's nothing suspicious about that. What _is_ suspicious is that they've been providing a lot of mechanical odds and ends, things like electromagnets, power cells, metal tubes, wiring and sheets of various alloys. All of these things can be use for totally normal purposes, but they can also be used to build particle weapons and other military devices, and here's the part that sealed it for me." The captain handed Lacus a sheet of paper, listing large quantities of chemicals. The names meant nothing to Lacus, and she looked back at Waltfeld.

"What does it mean?" Waltfeld smiled again.

"Individually, they mean nothing," he said, "but if you mix the compounds in the right proportions and use them to treat normal metal, you can make Phase Shift armor." Lacus nodded in understanding. There was no currently known nonmilitary use for Phase Shift, and if the buyers' intentions were peaceful, they wouldn't be obtaining the materials illegally.

"Did you find out when they meet the clients next?" she asked.

"The next shipment leaves in five hours."

* * *

**September 16, CE 72, Mercenary vessel **_**Starglider**_**, Debris Belt**

* * *

Captain Hitomi Kaido drummed her fingers on the armrest of her chair. Their contacts were late. This wasn't unheard of, but it put her on edge nonetheless.

The ship had been hired not out of a desire for military skill, but out of the need for a third party to receive the actual goods. Apparently, the people at Azathoth didn't want to risk having one of their own ships damaged, so they sent the _Starglider_ to be their bagboy. As mundane as the task seemed, Hitomi knew that what they were doing was illegal. There were also pirates to consider, so she took precautions. The ship's complement of four GAT-01 Strike Daggers had been deployed in case of an attack, and the covers had been opened on the vessel's missile launchers.

The _Starglider_ might just be a retrofitted _Marseille III_-class, but Hitomi didn't plan on being taken unawares.

"Captain," a technician called from the radar station. "We've caught sight of our designated delivery ship." Hitomi didn't even have to ask her next question; her crew knew her well. An image of the other ship came up on the main view screen. The merchant ship was a rectangular cargo vessel, a long, thin ship with large, box-shaped storage bays on its underbelly. Hitomi knew how these interactions always went; she'd handled five so far, which was why she was so surprised to have the face of PLANT icon Lacus Clyne appear on her screen.

"This is to the captain of the _Marseille III_-class ship directly opposite us: if you know me, then you are aware that I have no love of violence. I would ask that you take no actions against us, and that you please agree to assist us without protest."

There was a moment of dead silence on the bridge, followed by an explosion of laughter. The cargo ship was in no position to make any demands. A 25mm machine gun was mounted on the front of the vessel, and another on each of the vessel's sides, but it didn't really measure up to the _Starglider_'s 75mm Vulcan cannons and missile launchers, salvaged from a _Drake_-class warship. Never mind the fact that there were four mobile suits working for Hitomi's ship, while the merchant vessel had no escort. Hitomi managed to quiet her own laughter and issue a reply to the other ship.

"Miss Clyne, suffice it to say that we don't abide by your personal moral standards. We value the trade we have with our current employer, so I will simply offer you what you offered me. You can leave now, and we won't blow your ship apart." Hitomi was about to ask for the missiles to be armed when her Communications officer spoke up.

"Captain," he said, "I just intercepted a laser transmission from the merchant vessel, bearing Yellow-Orange, zero four four degrees relative. The edge of the beam must have brushed our sensors."

"What does the transmission say?" the captain asked.

"It's coded, Ma'am."

Hitomi swore. Coded transmissions meant military. She should have known that Lacus Clyne wouldn't be stupid enough to come out here by herself.

"Scan for other mobile suits," she ordered. Her CIC crew stumbled into action, and outside, an emerald beam streaked up into view and tore through the abdomen of one of the Daggers, blowing it to pieces. The other mobile suits pulled into a defensive formation just as four of Orb's Astray models emerged from the debris, along with a sort of armored Dagger. The lead Astray parried a beam saber strike from its opponent, bashed its shield against the Strike Dagger, and then stabbed it through the cockpit as it was knocked off balance. The _Starglider_ was abruptly jolted by an explosion.

"We just lost both portside missile launchers," one of the bridge crewmembers stated nervously. Hitomi had been a captain for almost two years now. She had set her fair share of ambushes, but she had never actually been caught in one. She stuttered out her next order.

"Use the starboard missile launchers and the Vulcans; destroy those mobile suits!" Even as bullets tore through the space in front of the ship, the armored dagger swept in close, releasing four missiles from a box-shaped launcher on its left shoulder. It fired its beam rifle at the same time, and two more explosions resonated through the hull.

"Starboard missile launchers are gone too!" The bridge crew was beginning to panic, and their fears were not eased as they watched a third Strike Dagger be destroyed by the Astrays. Machine gun fire streaked toward the Orb suits, but it was stopped as a massive pink-hued mobile suit descended from above the ship. Hitomi wasn't a soldier, so she hadn't been at Jachin Due, but she had seen footage of the battle, and she recognized the distinctive color and contours of the Strike Rouge. Bullets ricocheted off the G-weapon for a few seconds, and then its own CIWS opened fire, obliterating the Vulcan cannon. The pink machine aimed its beam rifle at the _Starglider_'s bridge as the Astrays and the armor-plated suit cut the limbs off the last Strike Dagger, reducing it to a helpless floating torso. A new face appeared on the main screen: a young blonde woman in a pink flight suit, sitting inside a space that Hitomi recognized as the cockpit of a mobile suit.

"This is Commodore Cagalli Yula Athha of the Orb Union," the blonde said. "I will now repeat Miss Clyne's request: please agree to assist us without further protest." There was another moment of silence. The attack had happened so fast that it took a moment for the crew to accept their new situation. Finally, Hitomi composed herself enough to speak.

"What do you want us to do?" On the screen, Athha remained quiet for a moment, and then smiled.

"We'd like to have a word with your financial backer."

* * *

**Author's Note:** As I'm sure you all know by now, I get nervous writing Lacus. As always, I hope I did her justice. I know there wasn't much action in this chapter, but I hope the emotional content makes up for it.

It was fun to introduce Pryce and Kane, who, as you may have guessed, will be major adversaries for our heroes later on. It was actually rather difficult for me to make sure their personalities were distinct. Essentially, Pryce is the elegant, sophisticated bad guy, while Kane doesn't bother to hide what kind of person he is.

There were two scenes that I wanted in this chapter, but moved to the next one for pacing reasons. One is a scene where Lacus and Fllay meet for the first time in a while, and the other is an informal scene involving the Astray pilots. Those of you who were hoping to see the two girls meet or to get to know the pilots a little better will get that in the next chapter. Speaking of which...

Next Chapter: The siege of Azathoth, and the rescue of Kira Yamato.


	6. Rescue

Disclaimer: I do not own _Gundam SEED_ or any of its characters. Dr. Elizabeth Sanford, Commander Alexander Stanton and his team, Ensign Roger Doolittle, Ensigns Kenji Tiran, Sara Nakamura and Maria Velasquez and the CS-M25 Eviscerators are my own creations.

Chapter 6: Rescue

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Bridge/Mess Hall**

* * *

In spite of the explanation she'd been offered, it still surprised Flay that black-market merchants would willingly aid legal authorities. Captain Ramius had said that it all came down to money: Orb had made a generous offer and the merchants had accepted. Flay still thought it was kind of odd, crooks and soldiers working together.

Her thoughts refocused as the bridge doors slid open and Lacus Clyne entered the room, her elegant white and blue dress flowing about in the weightless environment. Captain Ramius approached her and shook her hand, and Commander Herikawa bowed respectfully. Lacus nodded in acknowledgment.

"Thank you for allowing me to stay on board," she said. Captain Ramius waved the comment off.

"It isn't a problem, Lacus." The pink-haired girl smiled gently. She paused for a moment as her gaze wandered across the bridge, and then her eyes settled on Flay and she extended a hand in greeting.

"It's good to see you again, Flay," Lacus said. The redhead hesitated for a brief moment before taking the hand she was offered. It wasn't the fact that Lacus was a Coordinator that made Flay hesitate, although that would have been it in times past. This time the reluctance had nothing to do with Lacus and everything to do with Flay herself. The unease that gripped her did not go unnoticed.

"Flay, are you alright?" Lacus asked. Flay nodded quickly.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm okay." It had been the better part of six months since Lacus had last been to visit Kira, and even then, she and Flay hadn't really spoken much. Then, as now, it was nothing that Lacus had done. Rather, the problem was the ability for people to serve as anchors to memories.

_ You must be out of your mind! Why should I have to shake hands with you? I don't want any Coordinator like you acting friendly with me!_

Sometimes, those were memories of things that had happened to Flay, but sometimes…

_ I'll kill this girl! If they fire at Daddy's ship, I'll kill this girl!_

Sometimes the hardest memories to deal with were those of the things she had said and done.

Kira had assured her that Lacus didn't think any less of her for how their first meeting went, but it was still hard for Flay to believe that.

Lacus was either satisfied with Flay's answer or understood that this was something that couldn't be discussed in front of the entire bridge, because she shifted topics.

"The captain of the mercenary ship has told me that we should arrive at our destination in approximately six hours," she said. Captain Ramius nodded.

"Did the mercenary captain say anything else?" the older woman asked.

"Only that her clients would not be happy to see us," Lacus replied.

* * *

"Okay, I've got one," Kenji said. "So I was tuning up my M1's beam rifle…" Maria started laughing.

"Ah, yes," she said. "The hyper impulse beam rifle." Roger's eyebrows rose.

"Hyper impulse _beam rifle?_" He looked across the table at Sara, who simply shook her head.

It had taken a good amount of convincing from Sara to get the two younger Astray pilots to allow Roger to sit with them. While Kenji and Maria hadn't participated in the Battle of Orb, they remembered full well that it was the Alliance that had invaded their country, and both had lost friends during the siege and subsequent space battles. Only after Sara had explained how she and Roger had been working together in the last few battles, and insisted that he didn't fit the profile of a Blue Cosmos thug, did the others accept him as part of the group.

Not that Roger blamed them. Back during the war, the "Evil Earth Forces" stereotype was so close to being justified that it wasn't even funny. The lingering mistrust just made Doolittle hate Azrael and his cronies all the more.

At the moment, however, the character of the average Alliance soldier wasn't the topic of discussion. Rather, the conversation had turned to the exchange of combat-, or at least mobile suit-related stories.

"I maintain that my idea was sound," Kenji said. "All I did was to install an extra electromagnetic accelerator in the rifle's barrel, sort of like the secondary accelerator on a hyper impulse cannon. I just made a mistake in the wiring." He paused for a moment, taking a sip of his drink. "When I reconnected the power lines for the accelerators, I kind of had the current running in the wrong direction, which caused the magnetic fields to, well, reverse." Maria chuckled slightly, and Sara bore a knowing smile when she looked back at Roger.

"So it didn't fire?" Roger asked.

"Hey!" Kenji shot back with mock indignation. "It fired," he said, paused for a moment, and then added "backwards." Maria burst out laughing, Sara chuckled and Roger laughed as he realized what might have taken place. "The beam destroyed the rifle and the mobile suit's arm."

"Not to mention that it punched through the hangar's shutter door and took out a heli parked on the tarmac outside," Maria added.

"I was forbidden from ever customizing my machine again." As the laughter died down, Sara spoke up.

"Well, I have one. This took place during the Battle of Onogoro," she began, eliciting groans from Maria and Kenji.

"Madre de Dios," Maria said. "This is the 'how I met Hiro' story again, isn't it?"

"I'm going to tell this story until I get tired of it," Sara calmly replied. "Anyway, this was back when the Alliance was invading Orb. This was the first time the Astrays were being used in an actual battle, so we were all nervous, but damn it if we weren't going to make those Earth Forces bastards…" she looked at Roger. "No offense."

"None taken," the Alliance soldier added, rolling his eyes.

"Anyway," Sara resumed, "we were going to make them pay for every inch of ground. For a while, it was actually okay. We took some casualties from the Strike Daggers, but they were taking probably double the losses we were." She laughed a little. "We were actually feeling pretty good, all things considered." Sara paused for a moment, and Roger took advantage of the break in conversation to address Kenji and Sara.

"Where were you two during all this?" Kenji shook his head.

"We're new at this. We finished our training in time to run a few mop-ups after the major fighting died down, but this is our first real mission. Sara, on the other hand, was actually in the thick of it during the war." Sara gave a small nod in acknowledgment.

"I started out at the Battle of Onogoro and served on the _Kusanagi_ through to Jachin," she added.

"Impressive," Roger commented. He figured it was probably for the best if he left out that he was also at Jachin. He hadn't fired on any Orb mobile suits, but reminding the M1 pilots that he had been their enemy just didn't seem like the brightest idea.

"Anyway," Sara said, returning to the original topic of conversation. "About an hour into the battle, I caught sight of something on my CIS. I looked a little closer and saw that it was an Ereka, a jeep, driving through the middle of the battlefield despite the evacuation orders. At about the time I noticed the jeep, three Spearheads made a bombing run over the beach, tossing three cluster bombs at the Astrays; the pilots probably didn't even notice the smaller vehicle."

"Ah, the good ol' CBU," Roger said, smiling a little. "I remember hearing that in the First Battle of Victoria, South African Union troops made a whole company of GINNs _disappear_ using those. They got a lot harder to supply after the April Fool Crisis."

"Well, they were making them again by the time of Onogoro," Sara said. "We had shields, but we still lost at least one platoon of Astrays right then and there." She paused, shaking the dark memory from her head. At the next bit, she smiled again. "Anyway, I saw that the jeep was about to get turned into spare parts, planted my shield in front of it and stopped the bomblet that would have landed on top of it."

"And the guy driving the jeep was this 'Hiro'?" Roger asked. Sara nodded.

"I think I scared him pretty badly when my mobile suit suddenly moved that close to him, because the jeep braked kind of hard and the driver fell out of the side." She laughed. "He didn't seem like the military type; he had short, brown hair and really dorky-looking glasses. It turned out that he was a medic, out in the field tending to wounded soldiers. He just happened to get a little too close to the action." Roger's brow furrowed.

"How'd you learn all this?"

"Later in the fight, a teal-colored Alliance G-weapon broke through our ranks, cutting down three M1s in about three seconds. My mobile suit wasn't directly in the line of fire, which is probably why I wasn't killed, but I got caught in an explosion from the thing's bazooka and ended up with a lot of shrapnel in my left side. When I woke up, I was in a medical tent, and I think you can guess who was tending to my injuries." Roger smiled somewhat at the irony of the situation.

"So things kind of progressed from there?" he asked. Sara nodded.

"We always joke that I'm _his_ knight in shining armor." The conversation was interrupted by the soft hiss of the nearby door, which opened to reveal Lacus Clyne.

_Well,_ Roger thought, _here comes another uncomfortable conversation._ If Orb soldiers had issues with members of the OMNI Enforcer, a PLANT-affiliated figure like Clyne probably wasn't going to be any better.

The four pilots watched as Clyne made her way to the pick-up line, requested something to eat and proceeded to an empty table. Roger started laughing, and Sara gave him a questioning look.

"The princess is about to eat cafeteria food from a warship," he said. "I'd imagine that's probably a change from what she normally has." Roger's prediction may or may not have held merit, but if Clyne found the food unpleasant, she showed no sign of it.

"I'm surprised she's able to act so comfortable here," Sara said.

"I'm surprised Kenji's not hitting on her yet," Maria added.

"Hey," Kenji responded. "I'm not an animal. Besides, Lacus Clyne is different; she can't be treated the way I treat other women." The pilot had been looking at Clyne, but when he turned around, he found himself facing heated stares from both Sara and Maria. He looked quickly at Roger.

"Yeah," the Earth Forces soldier said, nodding. "You said that out loud." He stood up. "Well, I'm going to run a system check on my mobile suit and make sure it's recharged and rearmed by the time we reach our destination." He said his goodbyes and dropped off his empty tray. As he opened the door to leave the mess hall, Roger heard someone call him. Turning around, he noticed Lacus standing a short distance away.

"Are you the Earth Forces soldier who's been helping with the rescue?" the pink-haired Coordinator asked. Roger nodded quickly. He wasn't sure exactly what response he had expected from her, but it certainly wasn't what came next.

"I'm glad that you're here," she said, smiling. "I know that your nation has been at odds with the PLANTs and Orb in the past, and it is good to know that we do not have to see each other as enemies."

"Thank you, Miss Clyne," Roger said after a moment of surprised silence.

"Please," the girl said, "you may call me Lacus."

"Thank you again, Lacus." Roger turned to leave, thinking that he could be good friends with this girl.

Until…

"Haro!" a bizarre, high-pitched voice said, causing Roger to whip around in confusion, searching for the source.

_What the hell?_

His confusion only increased as a small pink ball rolled out from behind Lacus, two small mechanical flaps opening and closing briefly as the thing rolled to a stop.

_What the __**hell?!**_

"This is my friend, Mr. Pink," Lacus clarified. "He goes wherever I go." The pink thing turned around to face roger, and the Alliance soldier realized that it had two small sensors, very much like eyes, mounted on its front.

"Haro! I'm fine! How are you?" it chirped.

"Ooh," Roger said, shuddering. "That thing is going to be like nails on the chalkboard of my brain."

* * *

**Space station Azathoth, Debris Belt**

* * *

Doctor Sanford drummed her fingers on the nearby console, growing increasingly frustrated. The _Starglider_ was supposed to arrive an hour ago. Given the interference they'd suffered so far from the Orb military, she couldn't help but find the delay suspicious. While they didn't normally contact the mercenary vessel by radio, Sanford had requested it this time. Thus far, there was still no response.

"What do you think?" she asked, turning around to face Squadron Commander Sabato. His expression was pensive, and his right hand idly stroked his goatee.

"I don't like it," he said. "It could be a coincidence, but I don't believe we can afford to take that chance." Sanford nodded in agreement. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted when a technician at a nearby console called out in surprise.

"Radar is picking up multiple contacts!" Sabato whirled around to face the young man.

"How many are there?" he asked.

"I'm reading three ships," the tech replied. "Thermal profiles match the _Starglider_, a small supply vessel and…oh, my God. It's the legged ship!" Sabato swore.

"How far out are they?" he asked.

"ETA is approximately half an hour," the technician replied.

"Have they detected us yet?" Sanford asked, pushing off the wall and floating across the control room to join Sabato.

"It's unlikely, Doctor," Sabato replied. "The station has far more powerful sensors than a warship, and their thrusters are giving off far more heat than we are." He moved over to another console. "Get me Commander Stanton." After a moment, Stanton's face appeared on the computer screen. "The _Archangel_ seems to have found another way to trace us here. Have your team in their mobile suits and ready to launch in fifteen minutes; have all ships take up positions around the station and ready their mobile suit complements. I'll take command of the _Raleigh_ personally." Sanford heard Stanton give an affirmative over the com link.

_"What about the defense of the station itself?"_ Sabato looked at Dr. Sanford when he spoke next.

"I believe that's Sanford's area." The scientist nodded, smiling inwardly.

_This might actually be fun,_ she thought, turning to another technician and issuing a few orders of her own.

"Have all personnel withdraw from Level Ten," she said. "Let's see just how good these Orb soldiers really are."

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Bridge/Open Space**

* * *

"How far out are we?" Murrue asked.

"We're approximately ten minutes from the station, Captain," Commander Herikawa responded. Murrue nodded quickly, turning her chair to face the parasite operator, Terrence Byron, a sandy blonde young man in his early twenties.

"Can you connect me to the pilots?" she asked. Since the station had appeared on their sensors about five minutes earlier, the _Archangel_'s mobile suit pilots had been standing by in their machines. Byron nodded, hit a few buttons on his chair and gave Murrue the go-ahead. The captain picked up the telephone handset on the right armrest of her chair.

"We have nearly reached our destination," Murrue said. "We can't be sure of the enemy's fighting strength, but we have detected three _Laurasia_-class frigates positioned around the station. Our objective is to hold them off long enough for Athrun and his team to get inside the station and retrieve Kira. Cagalli, you are the only one here currently in possession of a G-weapon, and we'll need your help defending the ship."

_"Understood, Captain Ramius,"_ Cagalli responded.

"Ensign Doolittle, you will cover the shuttle until it reaches the station."

_"Copy that,"_ Roger came back.

"Ensigns Nakamura, Tiran and Velasquez, you will provide assistance as necessary." A quick trio of affirmatives followed.

"Enemy ships are deploying linear catapults," Herikawa called out from the CIC. Murrue nodded.

"All mobile suits, launch now. All hands, Level One battle stations!"

* * *

Roger swung the Duel Dagger over toward the shuttle, closing to within about a hundred feet of it and matching its velocity. Up ahead, he could make out the general shape of the space station, a cylindrical shaft supporting five rotating rings, behind the debris. He could also see enemy mobile suits approaching, but a combination of distance and debris made it nearly impossible to determine make and model.

"_Archangel_, what do we know about the enemy forces?" Roger recognized Sara's voice over his radio, followed by that of a petty officer from the CIC, Chandra if he remembered correctly.

_"The enemy force consists of ten GINNs, two CGUEs and six GuAIZs."_ Roger swore.

_Well, this is going to be interesting._

"Alright," Cagalli said. "We'll handle these guys. Roger, you keep that shuttle safe."

"Copy that, Princess," the Dagger pilot responded, smiling as he imagined the expression on Athha's face.

"Remind me to hurt you when this is over." Roger turned the Dagger slightly, looking back at the Strike Rouge. The pink machine now bristled with weapons. Two massive railguns were mounted over the shoulders, attached to a winged flight pack. The combined shield now mounted on the Rouge's left arm bore an immense, six-barreled Gatling gun and a beam boomerang. The final pieces of the combat ensemble were two nearly thirty foot anti-ship swords, mounted on the Strike Rouge's hips.

_The Integrated Weapons Striker Pack,_ Roger thought. _The girl's got class._

Perhaps one mile away now, the enemy suits broke into three distinct groups. The six GuAIZs made a beeline for the _Archangel_, while five GINNs and a CGUE closed in on the three M1s. Roger tightened his grip on the Duel Dagger's controls as the second five GINN team, led by a CGUE, advanced on him.

"Here we go!" he called out with an adrenaline-fueled grin, firing on the nearest GINN with the Dagger's shoulder cannon and beam rifle. The ZAFT-manufactured machine swerved away from the particle beam, which was exactly what Roger had been counting on. The GINN had unintentionally moved directly into the path of the cannon shot, and the shell struck it in the chest. The ensuing explosion tore open the mobile suit's chest, sending hunks of shrapnel flying away in all directions.

* * *

Kenji brought his Astray's shield up, blocking a rain of machine gun rounds from the nearest GINN. Moving quickly, he went on the offensive, locking onto the enemy mobile suit and firing his beam rifle.

The GINN didn't evade the shot, but the electron stream splashed harmlessly against a barrier.

While Kenji had been aware of the fact that the GINNs were carrying shields, it somehow hadn't registered that the defensive items might be covered with anti-beam coating.

_Damn it._ He quickly activated his com link.

"This is Ensign Tiran. All units, be advised, the GINNs have anti-beam shields. I repeat: the GINNs have anti-beam shields." The first reply came from Maria, whose M1 rushed past Kenji and went straight for the GINN he had fired on.

"You just have to use your head, hermanito," she said as she rammed her mobile suit into the GINN. The enemy machine drew its heavy sword and swept it through a downward arc. Instead of hitting the Astray, however, the weapon hit Maria's beam saber, which she had drawn as soon as the GINN went for its sword. The beam saber's hot plasma blade cut through the metal sword like a knife through butter, and Maria followed through with the attack, slashing from left to right and cutting the GINN in half. As the upper and lower halves of the machine exploded, Maria turned her Astray to face Kenji. "See," she said. "All you have to do is—,"

Her smart remark was cut off as a particle beam pierced her M1's right arm and blew it off at the elbow. Perhaps a hundred meters away, a CGUE adjusted its rifle, which Kenji now realized was the same type of beam weapon used by the GuAIZs, for another shot. Kenji raised his own beam rifle, but one of his cockpit alarms went off and he spun to the left, barely raising his shield in time as the nearest _Laurasia_-class fired one of its dual beam cannons, sending two massive electron streams at him. The nearly meter-wide particle beams scattered off the shield's magnetic field, but the kinetic energy hurled Kenji's Astray nearly forty meters before he managed to bring it to a halt.

"Puta madre!" Kenji heard Maria shout over the com link. "Hermanito, are you okay?" Getting his bearings, Kenji caught site of Maria's Astray. While her suit had lost the arm that normally held weapons, it still had its shield, and Maria was using her CIWS to return fire to the CGUE.

"I'm okay," he said, pushing forward on the throttle and rushing to rejoin the fight. Below Maria, Kenji saw Sara dispatch a GINN with a well-placed beam shot, and then dodge a stream of bullets from the CGUE's shield-mounted Vulcan cannon. Gritting his teeth, Kenji moved up beside Maria, opening fire on the CGUE as she turned her head-mounted Igelstellungs on an approaching GINN. Sara covered them from below, trading fire with the two other GINNs.

"Incoming!" Sara shouted, and Kenji looked up to see four missiles being launched from the _Laurasia_-class that had fired on him before. The explosives made it about halfway to the Astrays, and then two electron beams from the _Archangel_'s Gottfrieds cut through the volley, destroying it.

* * *

The forward _Laurasia_ opened fire with all three dual beam cannons.

"Evade!" Murrue called out. Neumann turned the ship hard to starboard, but one of the beam blasts still struck the _Archangel_, and the vessel shuddered with the impact. "How's the armor holding up?"

"It's intact," Commander Herikawa said, "but the temperature is up pretty high." He turned his attention back to the CIC, where he addressed Romero Pal next. "Target that ship with the Gottfrieds and return fire!" Four particle beams streaked out from the cannons. The _Laurasia_-class turned sharply, but two beams still caught its starboard engine, fire spouting from the wrecked thrusters.

"Byron," Murrue called out. "Find out how much progress the shuttle's made."

_"Ensign Doolittle, how are you and Athrun doing?"_ the voice of the parasite operator came over the radio.

"Getting there," Roger said through clenched teeth. The space station was close, a little less than two miles away, but the enemy mobile suits weren't making this easy. No sooner had Roger spoken than the hostiles closed in again. Instincts and training alike screamed at him to dodge the CGUE's beam shot, but instead he threw himself in front of it, taking the blast on his shield to protect the shuttle behind him. Muttering under his breath, Roger cracked off a round from the shoulder cannon, forcing the CGUE to dodge while he fired at the nearest GINN, sending four electron beams at it in quick succession. One beam hit the enemy machine's shield, another took its head off, a third hit the right shoulder and the fourth went through the cockpit. Roger bore a grim smile as the dead mobile suit drifted away, flames leaking from its thruster pack and a smoldering red hole glowing where its cockpit had been.

The three remaining GINNs split up. One flew off to each side, while a third moved under the shuttle.

_Son of a bitch!_

Roger wrestled with the controls, swinging the Duel Dagger to the left while pointing its right arm and beam rifle to the right. Two missiles streaked from the Dagger's shoulder-mounted launcher toward the GINN on his left, a shot from the beam rifle destroying the one on the right. The GINN targeted by the missiles broke off its attack on the shuttle, retreating as it fired its machine gun at the explosives. Spraying CIWS rounds at the CGUE, Roger fired the Fortrestra thrusters and swept down under the shuttle, where the GINN was aiming its machine gun at the vehicle. Roger shot it through the cockpit, but his alarms went off, and as he spun around, he could see that the last GINN, having destroyed the missiles, was pointing its weapon at him. Above him, the CGUE had locked onto the Duel Dagger with its beam rifle. Even if he blocked one attack, the other would catch him.

The CGUE abruptly jerked back as an incredibly narrow, high-speed electron beam speared its cockpit. The GINN looked around for the source of the shot, and Roger took the opening, firing the grenade launcher beneath his beam rifle. The explosive struck the mobile suit dead center, and fire and shrapnel burst out into space. Roger released the breath he had been holding.

"Thanks for the assist there," he said, tracing the shot back to the cargo vessel. The ship's box-shaped hull, essentially one giant holding bay, had opened at the front, revealing four more M1s and a new machine. This new mobile suit resembled a standard M1, save for the fact that its legs and shoulders bore openings for additional thrusters, and the V-fin on its head was much longer, looking almost like horns. The machine was painted orange and yellow, and it held a beam weapon that resembled a massive sniper rifle more than anything else.

"You're welcome," the sniper said over the com link. "I'll cover you until the shuttle reaches the station. The rest of you, reinforce the other three Astrays."

"Understood, Captain Waltfeld," an unknown voice answered, presumably that of one of the four new Astray pilots. Roger spoke up again.

"Waltfeld…as in Desert Tiger Waltfeld?" he asked.

"Yes," the sniper pilot replied. "Is there a problem?" Roger hesitated for a moment, and then did another facial shrug.

"No," he said. "I'm just having a really weird day."

* * *

Cagalli moved back a dozen meters, drawing one of the anti-ship swords as the GuAIZs closed in again.

Initially, three of the six machines had gone after her while the others had attacked the _Archangel_. After Cagalli destroyed one of them in under a minute, the remaining five decided to focus on the Strike Rouge and let the warships fight it out by themselves.

"Strike Rouge, the shuttle has safely entered the station," Byron said over the cockpit speakers. Knowing that Athrun was safe removed some amount of nervousness from the blonde's mind, and she leaned forward a little as the Advent Faction mobile suits came at her from above and below.

_Nice try, but you'll have to do better than that._

Firing the thrusters on the IWSP pack, Cagalli hurled the Rouge back again, moving out of the GuAIZs' line of fire. She targeted one of the two machines at the upper edge of her field of view and fired her railguns. The GuAIZ had been trying for a melee attack; it was simply too close for the pilot to block the supersonic projectiles, and they punched two jagged holes in the mobile suit's cockpit. As the dead mobile suit spun away, Cagalli shifted her focus to one of the lower two opponents, firing her railguns and Gatling gun. The railgun slugs exploded against the shield, twisting the GuAIZ to the right, and the machine gun rounds shredded the mobile suit's armor, cutting its right arm away between the elbow and shoulder joints. Within the Rouge's cockpit, Cagalli bore an almost predatory smile.

"Alright," she said, her com link activated on the off chance the enemy was listening. "Who's next?"

* * *

**Azathoth**

* * *

The room was quiet as Athrun and the eight Orb soldiers under his command stepped out of the _Archangel_ shuttle. The room they'd entered after passing through the airlock was about nine meters wide, with four airlock doors counting the one they'd just come through. A set of rails led along the floor from each airlock door, presumably for conveying cargo from the forward hatch featured on both ZAFT and Earth Forces shuttles to the center of the room. Cables ran from the center of the floor up to the ceiling, eight meters above, where the walls featured four more doors. As opposed to the circular airlock doors at floor level, these were rectangular double doors. Currently, there was not a sign of life in the area.

"What do you think, Lieutenant Commander Zala?" one of the soldiers asked. His name was Pearce, an Orb native, and he was always one of the first responders in the case of an emergency on the _Archangel_. His face was grim as he looked over at Athrun.

"From outside, the station had five rings," Athrun responded, "all spinning around a central axis of rotation. Now there were four spokes connecting each ring to the central shaft, so those four doors above us are probably elevators that run down the 'spokes' and lead to the lowest ring." Athrun pushed off the floor, floating up to the level of the elevator doors, and gave a hand signal for the eight soldiers to follow him. A moment later, the troops settled next to him. "All four of these elevators should lead to the same ring, so it shouldn't matter which door we take." He turned to Pearce. "Can you get it open?"

"Give me one minute," he said, already working at the keypad next to the elevator door.

"Hurry," the emerald-eyed Coordinator replied. "We don't know what's going on outside."

* * *

"They're in the halls now," the technician said. On the video screen in front of him was a group of nine men, dressed in jet pack-equipped flight suits and armed with automatic rifles. They were moving quickly, covering each other as they turned corners and opened doors. "Do you want me to send troops down?" From her position beside him, Elizabeth Sanford laughed.

"If I'd wanted you to do that," she said, "I wouldn't have called for Level Ten to be evacuated. No, I have something different in mind. Turn off all the lights on that level and set the ultrasonic tone for Scenario Four." The technician paused for a moment, and then smiled, shaking his head.

"We're using the twenty-fives on them," he said. "I do not envy those Orb soldiers." He went to work, fingers tapping at the keys of his operation console. The last thing he did was to set the station's intercom system to play a tone inaudible to human ears for the next ten seconds. There were twelve such tones, each representing a different scenario Dr. Sanford's deadliest creations had been trained for. Scenario Four was enemy repulsion.

One of Elizabeth's trademark icy smiles crept across her face as she watched the lights go out around the enemy troops.

_This will be fun to watch._

* * *

"Everybody, form up," Athrun called out. The rest of the team, undoubtedly as unnerved as he had been when the lights suddenly went out, rejoined Athrun quickly. "They know we're here; that's why they cut the power, so we have to move fast."

"I doubt they're keeping your friend on this level," Pearce said. "I take it we should go back to the shuttle docking area and look for some hatch that will let us head for the other rings." Athrun nodded.

"We'll double back to the station's axis of rotation. There'll probably be a way to reach the next ring from there." The group had barely started walking back before Athrun held up a hand, indicating for them to stop.

"What is it?" a member of the rear guard asked. Athrun shook his head, trying to make out what he was hearing. It took only a second to recognize the soft hiss as the sound of a hydraulic door opening, but the sound that followed it was something a little harder to place.

_Tick-tick, tick-tick._

* * *

"What's going on?" Serena looked up from the notepad she'd been writing on, shifting her attention from Kira's medical data over to Kira himself.

"Someone's attacking the station," she replied, no small amount of fear evident in her voice.

"Who's attacking?" he asked. While he hoped that Athrun, Cagalli, Captain Ramius and Flay were out there, it could just as well be pirates looking to raid for supplies. The medical technician hesitated, which filled Kira with a new sense of urgency.

"Serena," he said, watching her blush as he used her name. "Please, I have to know what's happening." She looked away for a moment, and then assumed a more determined expression.

"I don't know for sure," she said, "but from what I've heard, they're Orb soldiers. I was ordered to gather whatever data I could in case things get dangerous in here." Kira sat up in his bed, looking the girl in the eyes.

"They're here for me," he said. "I know how this sounds, but you have to let me go." Serena took on a pained expression, opening her mouth as if to speak several times before managing to get her statement out.

"But…they just don't understand what we're trying to do here," she said, her expression pleading. Kira stepped off the bed, free of the restraints due mostly to Serena's help. He stepped in close to the medical technician.

"Doctor Sanford might be trying to do something good, but she's going about it all wrong." He stopped, collecting his thoughts before continuing. "You heard about how they tranquilized me to bring me here?" At this Serena's voice took on the pleading quality of her facial expression.

"I didn't want them to do that!" she cried. "They said you wouldn't listen to them and that we _had_ to use force!" Kira winced a little at the volume of the girl's explanation. He didn't want to draw too much attention to them.

"They didn't just tranquilize me," he said in as quiet a voice as possible. "They shot innocent bystanders to cover up their operation. People probably died. Please, Serena, you have to get me out of here." She shook her head, her expression now one of complete shock.

"I…I just…I don't…" she stuttered, her breath coming fast. Finally, she stood up and walked away, leaving the room without saying anything else.

Kira rose to his feet, attempting to follow her out of the room, but stopped upon realizing that the door was locked.

"Shit!" he spat out in frustration, pounding his fist on the door. What was he supposed to do now?

* * *

Unbeknownst to Kira, Serena was wrestling with that same question just a few meters down the hall.

_I can't just let him go,_ she thought.

_But you have to, you have to._

_ How do I know he's telling the truth?_

_ He's Kira. He's kind; he's gentle; he's never lied to you or tried to hurt you, even though he probably could._

_ But they never told me anything about hurting people._

_ You know how cold Dr. Sanford can be. Does it really sound so impossible?_

_ But…I don't want believe I was helping to do something evil._

_ You can help to do something __**good**__ right now._

* * *

"I think it's getting closer," Athrun said. The acoustics of the interconnecting hallways made it difficult to tell where the clicking noise was coming from, but he knew it was getting louder.

"Okay," Pearce responded. He wasn't a Coordinator, but he trusted his superior's heightened senses. "I take it we're still heading for the elevator?" Athrun thought for a moment.

"I think that's still our best option," he said quietly.

"What about our flashlights?" Pearce asked, indicating the devices attached to their rifles. Athrun shook his head, although he didn't know whether the team could see it in the darkness.

"They'll help us see better, but it'll give us away in a heartbeat." Without any further discussion, the group started moving.

They were doing their best to avoid the clicking, but in order to go back where they'd come from, they couldn't move directly away from it. They passed several empty rooms, apparently used for storing medical supplies, judging by what little Athrun could see of the writing on the doors. The supply block was separated from a row of large, electronically sealed doors by another hallway, trailing off into the darkness. As they walked past the tenebrous offshoot, the rearmost soldier, a girl named Evin if Athrun remembered correctly, paused, staring off into the blackness.

"What is it?" Pearce asked her, trying to keep his voice low. Evin shook her head, breathing quickly, brown eyes wide.

"I thought I saw something," she said, taking a step toward the dark hall. It was at that moment that Athrun realized he could no longer hear the clicking sound.

"Wait," he said, but Evin disappeared around the corner, into the hall. After a second, there was a single click as her flashlight was turned on, and light washed into the hall intersection.

Pearce muttered an expletive and took a step forward, but froze in place. The light had revealed something back down the hall they were in now, in the direction the team had come from. A grey shape was briefly visible before it backed up and faded into the shadows. All of this happened in the briefest of moments; less than a second after the light came on, Evin screamed.

Even as Athrun and Pearce moved toward the intersection, the soldier's shrill cry was drowned out by a deep, menacing hiss. This wasn't the sound of a mechanical door opening. More than anything else, it reminded Athrun of footage he'd seen of dangerous reptiles from Earth: cobras, Komodo dragons and saltwater crocodiles.

Athrun rounded the corner first, catching sight of Evin. She had been covered with something; her light was shining through some sort of cloak or membrane supported by struts. To Athrun's horror, he realized that there were blood vessels in the membrane, and that the struts were elongated fingers. The flashlight was shining through some sort of bat-like _wing._ In the instant it took him to realize this, there was a wet ripping sound, and Athrun heard the girl's scream change into a sickening gurgle.

_I don't know what you are,_ he thought as he raised his assault rifle, _but I'll bet you're not bulletproof._ Athrun squeezed off a three round burst, aiming just above the wing, and was rewarded with the sound of bullets striking flesh, followed by a hissing shriek. The muzzle flare revealed something white, leaping away from what was left of Evin as it cried out in anger. Behind him, Pearce and the other soldiers quickly turned on their flashlights, but the thing had already disappeared into an open doorway.

"Back up, back up!" The soldiers heeded Athrun's command, retreating from the dark hall back into the intersection.

"What the hell was that thing?" Pearce asked. His voice remained low, but it held both confusion and fear, and the soldier's face glistened with sweat. Athrun shook his head.

"That doesn't matter right now," he said. "We have to fall back to the shuttle, and—," he stopped as Pearce's eyes widened.

_Tick-tick._ The noise came from directly behind Athrun, less than a meter away, and he spun around, turning his flashlight on even as he brought the gun up.

It was right there, a massive white _thing_ at least two meters tall, lips curling back from row upon row of needle teeth. Athrun leaped back a few steps, sheer terror coursing through his veins as he fired at the creature. One round grazed its shoulder before it dropped onto all fours and retreated, a few more bullets striking its back legs before it dove through another open door.

"Start moving," Athrun said as he turned to face the team again. "We have to get—." He had turned just in time to see another of the monsters leaping out of the darkness behind the soldiers. In the blink of an eye, its jaws clamped shut on one man's neck and it pulled him to the ground, and even as he struggled the creature gave a single, vicious shake back and forth. There was a nauseating crack, like a dry tree branch breaking, and the man's limbs went limp. The creature let go of the corpse's broken neck as a rain of bullets fell on it. Pearce and the others sprayed its torso with fire, bullets ripping into the beast even as it rose onto its hind legs, its leathery wings spreading to fill the hall. In the space of a second, Athrun took aim and fired three shots into the thing's misshapen skull. With a keening howl, the monstrosity toppled backward and went still, and Athrun felt some amount of relief wash over him. The things were tough, but they could still die.

"Stay back to back!" Athrun ordered. "Don't give them an opening. We're falling back to the shuttle bay." The team moved quickly now, searching the darkness around them for any sign of movement.

* * *

**Open Space**

* * *

Cagalli dodged to the left, the GuAIZ's beam claws sweeping through the vacuum no more than four meters away. She was successfully keeping her melee opponent between one of the other machines and her own, but the third and fourth GuAIZs were moving in from below.

Growling with frustration, Cagalli pointed the Gatling gun at the mobile suits below her and released a fifty round burst, forcing the enemy machines to back off. Her cockpit alarm went off, and she turned in time to see the melee GuAIZ rushing her again.

"Come and get it!" she said, gritting her teeth. This time, she didn't dodge. As the mobile suit attacked, she lashed out with the Rouge's left leg, kicking the enemy's shield out of the way. Releasing a fierce battle cry, Cagalli brought the anti-ship sword down hard. The sharp edge sliced into the GuAIZ's right shoulder, continued down through the cockpit and exited just above the left hip. As the halves of the suit separated, she fired her railguns at the one left in front of her, the impact of the rounds on its shield knocking it back and giving her time to point the Gatling gun at the enemies below her again. The pilots, having seen what happened to three of their companions, were putting as much distance between the Strike Rouge and themselves as possible, and the Lioness of Orb finally had some breathing room.

Several kilometers away, Waltfeld and the Astrays were having a field day with the enemy. Sara Nakamura had destroyed one of the three surviving GINNs attacking her team, and of the remaining two, one had been flanked by the reinforcement M1s and torn to shreds by electron fire. As Cagalli looked, the last one rushed Waltfeld's M1A, firing its heavy assault machine gun. The beam sniper rifle took two hands to operate, so Captain Waltfeld hadn't mounted a shield, which had probably made him look like an easy target to the enemy pilot.

This, needless to say, was wrong. The M1A Astray was built for maximum space maneuverability, and the Tiger moved upwards, evading the automatic fire with ease and swooping in behind the GINN. Before the Advent Faction pilot could react, a sniper beam impaled his mobile suit. The CGUE pilot simply lost it, firing madly at the M1s. Roger's Duel Dagger attacked him from behind, running the enemy MS through with a beam saber.

The three GuAIZs remaining hesitated where they were, uncertain of whether to attack or retreat. At this point, Cagalli could handle either option.

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Bridge**

* * *

The _Laurasia_-class frigates launched another missile volley. The Helldart interceptor missiles rushed out to greet them, and sixteen of the enemy explosives were destroyed. Igelstellung fire destroyed five more, but three made it through, and Flay gripped the armrests of her chair as the bridge shook with the force of the explosions.

"Weapons Bank Four has been hit!" Chandra shouted from the CIC. "We're sealing bulkheads."

"Korinthos; Valiants, fire!" Commander Herikawa commanded. Through the main view port, Flay saw six missiles streak out toward the nearest enemy ship, followed by the yellow flashes of hypervelocity projectiles. The _Laurasia_'s CIWS destroyed the missiles, but the Valiant rounds struck home on the underside of the hull, bright orange explosions bursting forth. The _Archangel_ had dealt severe damage to two of the enemy ships now, leaving one with a damaged engine and the other with gaping wounds in its hull. The third _Laurasia_-class remained untouched, primarily due to its position on the far side of the station.

The ship with the damaged engine fired its two forward-mounted conventional cannons. Unlike the particle beams, Flay couldn't see the shells as they headed for _Archangel_, and she tensed, holding her breath.

"Drop the bow thirty degrees!" Captain Ramius called out. "Roll twenty degrees to port!" The ship slanted drastically, but one of the explosive rounds must have still struck the hull somewhere, as the bridge shuddered again. When Murrue spoke again, Flay almost jumped from nerves alone.

"Try to get in touch with Athrun," she said. "I don't want to keep this up any longer than we have to." Flay nodded and hit a few keys on her panel, pressing the earpiece of her headset closer to her ear.

"Athrun," she said. "Athrun, this is the _Archangel_. Do you copy?" A combination of the space station's walls and the N-jammers on the warships was creating a lot of static, but after a moment Flay could hear the reply.

_"I copy,"_ he said. Flay couldn't be sure if it was her imagination or not, but she thought she heard voices shouting on Athrun's end of the radio.

"What's going on in there?" she asked. There was a moment of loud static before the broken reply.

_"There's somethi—…here with us; like some…—ind of animal. We…heading…—ack to the shuttle."_ Flay grew worried at the last statement. She couldn't ask them to stay in a hostile area, but the thought of abandoning Kira after coming all this way was awful. Apparently, Athrun was thinking the same thing.

_"Don't worry Flay,"_ he said. _"I'm…—ot leaving him; we just need backup."_ Flay opened her mouth to tell Captain Ramius to send reinforcements, but she was cut off when Jackie Tonomura cried out from the CIC.

"Captain!" he said. "Heat sources are appearing above and below us, bearing Blue zero nine zero degrees and Orange zero seven five degrees relative!" Murrue's chair swiveled around to face them.

"How many?" she asked. Chandra replied.

"There are two of them; thermal profiles match _Nazca_-class destroyers." Flay inhaled sharply. Her hands shook as she spoke into her headset again.

"Athrun," she said, trying as hard as she could to keep her voice under control, "we can't send backup right now."

* * *

_**Raleigh**_**, Bridge**

* * *

"What's the status of our mobile suit forces?" Squadron Commander Sabato asked. One of the technicians stammered a reply, alarm clear in his voice.

"We have three GuAIZs left," he said, causing Sabato's eyebrows to rise.

_Damn! Well, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised after Jachin._

"Very well then," the commander responded. "It's time to play our hand." For most of the battle, the _Raleigh_ and _Robespierre_ had been dark, with all of their electronics turned off and only life support running, ensuring that they would read as debris on the legged ship's sensors. The objective had been to force the _Archangel_ to show its full strength, leaving no nasty surprises for the two _Nazca_-class destroyers when they finally moved. It appeared that that had come to pass; it was time to join the fight.

"Send word to the _Robespierre_," Sabato ordered. "Tell them to have Stanton and his team launch. At the same time, have our mobile suits launch while firing the electron cannons." There was a chorus of affirmatives and the bridge crew began to move.

* * *

**Azathoth**

* * *

Kira sat up as his door slid open and Serena reentered the room. The uncertain girl who had left the room some time ago was a far cry from the one who stood in the doorway now. Now she moved with a purpose, leaning back out into the hall to check for other personnel before turning to face Kira again.

"Can you find your way back to Level Ten?" she asked. The question was so unexpected that it took Kira a moment to answer.

"Yes," he finally managed. "I think so." Serena nodded, reaching into her pocket and withdrawing a small metal device several centimeters long, attached to a lanyard.

"Put this on," she said, placing the device in Kira's hand. "From what I heard, some soldiers got into the station, so Doctor Sanford might have the Eviscerators out; this will keep you safe."

"What is it?" he asked.

"From time to time, the Eviscerators are let out of their pen so they can familiarize themselves with the station," she said. "When they're out, we all have to wear these. The device is an ultrasonic tag that identifies you as an ally; the Eviscerators have been trained not to attack anybody wearing one." Kira briefly thought back to the creatures he had been trapped in the darkened room with, and placed the lanyard around his neck. As he got up, Serena handed him a card. He gave her a questioning look.

"It's for the lock on this door," she said, pointing to the only way in or out of his room. "When you get out, lock me in here." Kira nodded, opening the door and stepping out. "Kira?" she asked just before he could close the portal.

"Yes?" he replied. She looked away briefly, her cheeks flushing bright red.

"Be careful," she finally said, causing Kira to smile.

"I will," he said, before shutting her in and sliding the card she had given him through the reader beside the door. A light above the reader changed from green to red, signifying that the door was locked.

With a final glance back, Kira turned and started down the route he had taken during his escape attempt.

* * *

**Open Space**

* * *

In spite of the circumstances, Commander Stanton was in a good mood. The last time he had flown a sortie against the _Archangel_, he had been working with five people whose capabilities, loyalty and even names had been unknown to him. There had been only one ship to provide support and they had all been facing an enemy they had never met before.

Now, however, things were different. There were five ships backing his team. Lia and Alex had obtained some experience fighting the legged ship's pilots and analyzing their tactics. Most importantly, however, Stanton had his team with him. Lia was a skilled warrior, but she was even deadlier with the Amigos backing her.

"Well, well, well," Allen Rodriguez mused from his position behind Stanton. "We stay out of the battle and the whole thing turns into one giant shit storm." Stanton heard Virgil Hawke respond with a derisive snort.

"One man's shit storm is another man's opportunity," Hawke said. "It just means more targets for me."

"Same here," a third voice replied. A few dozen meters below him, Alex saw Joseph Masterson extending his GuAIZ's beam claws. "I've been sitting on my ass for way too long. I've got a lot of catching up to do." Rodriguez laughed a little.

"Yeah, it's time to see how well those Orb suits burn," he said, hefting his custom made Hellfire cannon. "Let's do this!" Stanton gave a half-smile.

"Judging by how the battle's gone so far, it doesn't look like Zala's here," he said, "so I'll work with some of the Meyers team on Commodore Athha. Lia, you and the rest of Meyers's boys take the M1s and then make your move on the legged ship."

"What about us?" Hawke asked.

"There are a lot of Orb mobile suits out there," Stanton replied. "Have fun."

* * *

"Damn," Roger heard Sara mutter. "We've got more hostiles incoming." He turned his mobile suit's head to look in the direction Sara's Astray was facing, catching sight of seven GuAIZs coming in fast. One in particular stood out, as it was carrying a long weapon that looked somewhat like the old Barrus heavy ion cannon the GINNs used to use, save for a larger reservoir at the back and a wider muzzle. Roger moved to target it, but he was interrupted.

"Well, it looks like the Orb soldiers brought their Earth Forces dog with them again," a familiar female voice came over the radio.

"I take it this is the pilot who pulled that clever little stunt with the solar panels," Roger said.

"Care for a rematch?" the enemy pilot asked playfully.

"I wouldn't mind," Roger answered. Without any further discussion, he opened fire with the shoulder cannon and loosed two more missiles. The GuAIZ took the cannon shot on its shield, the explosion pushing it back nearly a hundred feet. As the missiles approached, the machine darted away, firing its CIWS.

"Is that the best you can do?" the pilot asked. Roger laughed.

"Oh, I'm just getting started." As he moved toward the GuAIZ, he saw three other ZAFT-made suits break formation, moving away from the group and attempting to flank the Astrays while the remaining three provided cover fire.

The missiles detonated, destroyed by controlled bursts of machine gun fire, and the GuAIZ came flying through the dissipating fireball, beam claws extended. Roger quickly stowed his rifle and drew one of the Dagger's beam sabers, crossing blades with his newfound rival even as the undamaged _Laurasia_-class ship opened fire with its beam cannons, sending six lethal electron bolts at the Astrays.

* * *

**Azathoth**

* * *

Athrun sprayed the hallway with another burst of automatic fire, forcing the creature to duck around a corner, leaking blood from several bullet wounds. The albino monstrosities had been following the soldiers as they'd made their way to the shuttle, and while they hadn't killed anyone else, Athrun, Pearce and the others hadn't been able to bring any of them down either. The things were extremely resilient, and they didn't seem to feel pain either.

"We're almost there," Pearce said, pointing at the metal doors just down the hall from them. "Once we get into the freight elevator, those bastards won't be able to follow us. What's going on with the reinforcements?" Athrun shook his head.

"I'm not sure," he admitted, "but the _Archangel_'s having problems of its own out there." As he finished talking, Athrun heard a bizarre popping noise, followed by a metallic clang as something hit the floor.

"What was that?" Pearce asked.

"I don't know," Athrun replied, "but it isn't good." If there was one thing he had learned since the start of the fight, it was that these creatures, whatever they were, learned fast. Athrun had noticed that they didn't just rush in blindly. Normally, the things remained out of the line of fire, but whenever an empty magazine hit the floor, they would charge, apparently recognizing the sound as a sign that the soldiers were unable to defend themselves for a brief moment. Whatever they had just dropped on the floor, it probably meant that they were up to something, and Athrun didn't plan on sticking around to find out.

Covering each other, the team passed the final hall intersection, arriving safely at the elevator.

Nothing sprang from the shadows; nothing came up behind them.

Somehow, that only made Athrun more uncomfortable.

* * *

Kira stumbled again, tripping over something heavy on the floor. It was the second time this had happened, and he was working very hard to ignore the fact that the objects were warm, soft and about the size of a human body.

He'd heard gunfire as he made his way through Level Ten, and a few moments ago, Kira could have sworn he'd seen flashlight beams sweeping through the hall he was in.

It had crossed his mind several times that he should have called out.

But gunfire wasn't the only thing Kira had heard. He had also noticed the hissing shrieks, low growling and the unmistakable tapping of claws on metal. Serena had told him that the ultrasonic tag would protect him if one of the Eviscerators came after him, but he didn't know just how well the creatures were trained. If they were really bent on killing, they might not recognize the protective device until it was too late.

A sudden, metallic noise startled him. The distorted acoustics in the station made it impossible for Kira to tell exactly where it had originated, but as he focused on the sound, he heard something that made him forget about the creatures completely.

"What was that?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

"I don't know, but it isn't good."

_Athrun._

The team was close enough that he could hear them even at their relatively low volume. The knowledge that they were so close, and that Athrun was with them, was enough to override any fear of the Eviscerators.

"Athrun!" he called out, moving with a purpose as he tried to focus on where the voices had come from.

"Kira!" the reply came from around the next corner, and as Kira made the turn he finally saw his friend, along with a group of six other armed men and women. They were standing at a large set of metal doors, just past an intersection between the hallway Kira was in and two others. The brunette couldn't keep his face from breaking into a grin as he started off toward the group.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you," he said, prompting Athrun to laugh.

"Yeah, well, we've been having issues of our own in—," Athrun stopped, his face contorting with fear. Kira heard a sound from above him, almost like thunder, and he thought for a moment that the noise was the source of Athrun's worry, but then he saw movement off to his side as he reached the intersection.

A piece of the darkness in the left hallway detached itself and sprang out in front of him: a hulking shape silhouetted in the illumination from the soldiers' flashlights. It was easily bigger than Kira, crouching down on four legs, needle teeth gleaming in the dim light. Some serpentine appendage, a tentacle or tail, lashed out and struck Kira in the chest, the force of the blow knocking him over. A heavy, clawed hand was placed on his chest, pinning him to the ground, and a gust of fetid breath blew into Kira's face as saliva dripped from the creature's open jaws onto his forehead.

"Shoot it!" someone cried.

"Don't, you'll hit Kira!" Athrun warned. Bullets, however, were unnecessary. The jaws hanging above Kira's face swung shut, lips sliding closed over the teeth, and the creature lifted its claw off of him with a dismissive, hissing grunt. As quickly as it had appeared, the Eviscerator vanished back into the darkened hallway, and Kira suddenly remembered the ultrasonic tag he was wearing.

_Thank you, Serena!_

Wasting no time, he got to his feet and ran to join Athrun and the others. As he reached them, he heard the thunder-like noise again, this time directly above them.

"I've got it!" an older man with grey hair and a light tan said, a triumphant grin on his face. Just in front of them, the metal doors slid open. The noise reverberated through the hall again.

"What is that?" Kira asked. Athrun shook his head, frowning.

"Sounds like sheet metal being bent or something," the older fellow said, looking up at the ventilation shaft above them. Kira suddenly remembered the first sound he had heard: the pop and clang. He realized with no small amount of fear that a vent covering being pulled loose from its fittings and tossed to the floor would have produced a sound very much like that.

"They're in the—," he began, but was cut off by another demonic shriek. The vent cover above them popped loose and fell to the floor, and a white arm reached down and grabbed the older man. Two fingers and an opposable thumb, tipped with scythe-like claws seven or eight centimeters long, seized the soldier by the face, and he was hauled bodily into the air.

"Pearce!" Athrun cried, rushing forward. Several soldiers tried to grab Pearce's legs, but he was pulled up into the ventilation shaft and out of sight. There was a thick cutting sound and the man's screams stopped abruptly. Athrun cried out in anger, firing a burst of automatic rounds into the vent, and eliciting an angry shriek from the Eviscerator above. The thunderous sound of metal bending with the creature's shifting weight became audible again, moving away from them this time.

"Damn it!" Athrun shouted, slamming a fist against the near wall. There was a moment of silence while everyone dealt with the loss of another teammate. Kira didn't say anything; he didn't feel that he had the right to interrupt them. Finally, Athrun spoke again.

"We're getting out of this Hellhole, now."

* * *

**Open Space**

* * *

Roger Doolittle muttered a string of obscenities as he brought his mobile suit's shield up. The GuAIZ's beam claws crashed against the barrier, the shock of the impact jolting through the Duel Dagger's cockpit. Pushing back, the Earth Forces pilot brought the suit's right arm around and pointed the beam rifle at the GuAIZ's head. The olive-colored machine pulled its head to the side, avoiding the shot, and then planted its left foot on the Dagger's shield and pushed off.

"Why are you guys doing this?" Roger asked, growing a little frustrated. He brought up his shield and blocked a shot from his foe's beam rifle.

"We're doing this because Naturals are a threat," she said, "especially people like you." Roger groaned.

"You mean people in the Alliance," he said.

"You conquer other countries and kill other Naturals just so you can have the resources to kill Coordinators," she said. "You may have somehow managed to mix a few good people in, but by and large you're vermin, capable only of hatred and deserving of nothing but death." Roger paused for a moment, incredulous.

"Holy _shit_," he said. "You know, Missy, not all the people in the Alliance are like that. There's a lot more good men and women mixed in there than you seem to think."

"Then what about the Mandelbrot Incident, the Copernicus bombing, the Bloody Valentine and the Cyclops at Alaska?" the Advent Faction pilot asked, raising her voice with each atrocity she listed. Roger silently hoped Azrael was burning in Hell right now.

"Come on! That was Blue Cosmos!" Roger shot back, firing his beam rifle and shoulder cannon simultaneously. It had worked on the GINNs: they'd dodge one shot and get hit by the other. This pilot, however, was a good deal cleverer, and she fired the GuAIZ's thrusters and launched herself upward, evading the explosive round and the particle beam.

"You can't escape responsibility," she said. "Blue Cosmos _is_ the Alliance, and that means you worked for the butchers that committed those crimes. You're an accomplice to mass murder."

"Oh, for God's sake, it's not like the Bloody Valentine was me personally!" Roger shouted back.

"Personal? You want to talk _personal?_" the enemy spat. "You people murdered my friends when you attacked Victoria, and you cost me the best man I've ever known when you took Gibraltar!" Roger opened his mouth to protest, and then shut it as he remembered that he had destroyed quite a few ZAFT mobile suits at Gibraltar. He performed another facial shrug.

"Actually," he said, the faintest hint of amusement in his voice, "that last one really _might_ have been me personally." The enemy pilot hissed in anger, probably through clenched teeth if the sound of it was anything to go by.

"You soulless Earth Forces _bastard!_" she shouted, extending the GuAIZ's beam claws and rushing forward. Roger lowered the Duel Dagger's electron rifle, moving to stow it and draw a beam saber, but as soon as she saw him lower the weapon, the Advent Faction pilot raised her own beam rifle and sent an electron stream tearing through Roger's weapon. The shot blew the Dagger's beam rifle apart, and Roger swore and tossed the useless handle away, drawing a saber as the GuAIZ slashed at him with its beam claws. The Earth Forces pilot tilted his mobile suit hard to the left, but the claws still sliced away the cannon and Fortrestra thruster on the Dagger's right shoulder.

Swearing profusely, Roger backed away and lashed out with the beam saber. The GuAIZ fired its thrusters and backed off perhaps seventy feet, dodging the attack. The ZAFT-built machine spread its arms and launched the two extensional arrestors. While the claws were essentially the same grappling weapon used by the Sword Striker pack, Roger realized that the ZAFT designers must have added a magnetic generator and plasma emitters to the design, as red beam blades sprang into existence inside the claws. While he managed to stop one arrestor with his shield, the other struck the already damaged shoulder, cleanly slicing the Dagger's right arm off.

"Come on!" Roger cried out in frustration, firing his CIWS and opening the missile launcher. The enemy, however, must have anticipated the move, as she fired a precise beam rifle shot while retracting the arrestors. The electron beam struck the missile launcher dead center, and the resulting explosion destroyed the Duel Dagger's head and some of its upper torso, spraying shrapnel into the cockpit. Roger instinctively shielded himself with his arms, crying out in pain as several jagged pieces of metal tore into his left arm and side.

* * *

Things weren't going well for the other combatants either.

At first glance, it had appeared that the _Archangel_'s complement of mobile suits would be more than sufficient to handle the twelve machines the Advent faction had released as its second wave, along with the three survivors of the force that had attacked Cagalli. The eight M1s and Captain Waltfeld's M1A, along with Roger's Duel Dagger and the Strike Rouge, were a formidable force, and it looked as though the fifteen GuAIZs were sorely outmatched in spite of their numerical advantage.

Such an initial analysis, however, would have been wrong.

Almost as soon as the fighting restarted, things began to go wrong for the Orb forces. The one undamaged _Laurasia_-class had moved forward and had begun firing into the midst of the Astrays with its dual beam cannons. While the suits were maneuverable enough to evade the particle beams, they were forced to break formation, which was exactly what the GuAIZ team had been waiting for.

Five machines, led by the distinctively marked command unit, had joined the three engaging Cagalli and had swarmed the Rouge, keeping it isolated from the rest of the fighting. The other seven had attacked the Astrays and Dagger. While Roger Doolittle and Lia Cromwell had spun off into their own vicious duel, the Amigos had broken away from the other three GuAIZs, flanking the Astrays.

All Hell broke loose.

Virgil Hawke opened fire with his beam rifle, shooting three or four times at one of the M1s at the edge of the group. The orange mobile suit brought up its shield and blocked the beam shots, and as such the pilot never saw Allen Rodriguez as he moved into position behind it, a tactic he'd practiced with Hawke many times before.

"Bye-bye!" he shouted, locking on with the Hellfire. A stream of red-white plasma, sheathed in arcing electricity, surged from the barrel of the cannon and hit the Astray in the back. The cockpit and chest superheated and sublimated violently, flashing into an orange cloud of vaporized metal as the plasma beam continued through and struck another M1 in the shoulder, vaporizing the joint and blowing apart half of the chest. The fatally damaged machine twisted in space for a moment before its energy battery overcharged and it exploded.

A third Astray leveled its beam rifle at Rodriguez, only to have the metal claws of an EEQ7R extensional arrestor plunge into its face, shattering the optics and embedding themselves into the head. At the other end of the cable, Joseph Masterson reeled the tether in and pulled his GuAIZ up to the M1 in short order. The second he reached melee range, Masterson stabbed his beam claws through the Orb suit's cockpit. He darted away in time to escape a vengeful beam shot from another Orb mobile suit.

Waltfeld opened fire with the M1A's rifle, the sniper blast tearing through one of the three GuAIZs still holding formation, and Kenji Tiran attacked a second with his beam saber, slashing downward through the Advent Faction suit's torso. A fourth Astray got caught between Rodriguez and Hawke. Having seen the lethality of the Hellfire, the Orb pilot blocked the plasma beam with his shield, only to have a precise shot from Hawke's beam rifle drill through his cockpit.

Two GuAIZs had been felled, at the cost of four M1s.

Cagalli growled in frustration as the snake-tattooed command suit got in her way again, firing its arrestors at her. The beam blades sprang into being as the claws reached the Strike Rouge, but Cagalli managed to bring the combined shield up in time, and the shield's magnetic field repelled those of the beam blades, causing the arrestors to bounce away harmlessly. As the command suit retracted the arrestors, Cagalli rushed it with the anti-ship sword, firing her railguns at another GuAIZ as she did so. The grunt suit was destroyed, but the command unit blocked the sword with its shield, firing its beam rifle as it pulled away from her. Cagalli took the particle beam on her shield, and then her cockpit alarm went off again, and she barely avoided another beam shot from behind her. She dodged two more shots, one from below her and one from somewhere above. Even as she readied to fire her railguns at another enemy, the command GuAIZ came straight at her, beam claws extended. She dodged the swing and returned the attack with her sword, which her enemy took on his shield.

"Well, Athha," the enemy pilot said over her radio, "you certainly don't disappoint." The GuAIZ's mono-eye sensor slid over to look at the other Advent Faction units. "Reynolds, Ishida and Dobson, you three head over and take the remaining M1s. Rodriguez, Hawke and Masterson, you've done enough damage over there; come say hello to the commodore."

_I'll teach you to take your attention off me._

Cagalli slammed on the controls, causing the Rouge to head-butt the command GuAIZ. As the enemy mobile suit lurched back, she aimed the railguns at it.

Just before she could fire, however, her cockpit alarm went off. She twisted the Rouge enough to avoid being hit in the cockpit, but the electron beam blew away part of the IWSP module's right wing. Turning, Cagalli caught sight of three new GuAIZs entering the fight as the three others left. One member of the new trio held its beam rifle steady, having just taken the shot she barely avoided. The second had its beam claws extended, and the third held some sort of massive cannon.

"Alright, boys!" a new voice came over the speakers, presumably one of the pilots from the trio. "Looks like we've got ourselves a G-weapon kill!" Cagalli fired her Gatling gun, but the three new GuAIZs dodged the bullets, and she was forced to dedicate her energy to dodging as electron beams came at her from three separate directions. During one of her evasions, she got a glimpse of the shuttle. It had left the station and was now about halfway to the _Archangel_. The ship was doing its best to hold its position for the shuttle, but beam fire from multiple enemies was forcing Murrue to move her vessel quite a bit.

Cagalli's attention refocused as several beam shots came her way. She launched upward, evading the electron fire, pulled the Midas Messer off of the shield and hurled it at the command suit. Before the beam boomerang could reach the enemy, a precise electron shot speared and destroyed it.

"Nice shot, Hawke," Cagalli recognized the voice of the commander. Another cockpit alarm went off, and as she turned in the indicated direction, a beam from the one GuAIZ's massive cannon came straight at her. Cagalli brought the shield up, and the Rouge shuddered with kinetic force as the plasma beam crashed against the defensive item. She aimed the Gatling gun at the cannon wielder, but when she pulled the trigger, the multi-barreled weapon wouldn't spin. Looking at it, Cagalli now realized that the back end of the gun had warped from the heat of the plasma attack; the machine was no longer functional. At the moment she realized that, an alert screen popped up on the CIS, warning her that her shield had reached its Curie point. The plasma beam had superheated the anti-beam coating, causing it to lose its protective magnetic field.

"Damn," she hissed, twisting her machine to avoid more beam fire. The command GuAIZ made a run at her, extending its beam claws. Cagalli blocked the attack with her anti-ship sword, only to have another cockpit alarm activate. She fired the upper thrusters, dropping down far enough that the GuAIZ attacking from behind didn't cut her in half. Rather, the beam claws sliced through her railguns.

Jetting downward even further, Cagalli broke away from her attackers, gaining enough breathing room for a quick check on the rest of the battle.

Judging by the IFF tags, Kenji, Sara and Maria were all okay, but the four reinforcement M1s had all been destroyed. Waltfeld was giving the Advent faction pilots fits with his M1A, darting around faster than they could keep up with him. As for Roger, he was…

_Oh, no._

The Duel Dagger had been severely damaged. The cockpit hadn't been destroyed, but the head and arms were missing and the mobile suit's upper chest had been damaged. Cagalli hit her com button, switching back to a coded transmission her allies would hear but her enemies wouldn't.

"Ensign Doolittle, Roger, are you okay?" There was a burst of static, followed by a reply.

"Well, I…—een better." Cagalli sighed with relief. She ducked away from another beam shot and opened fire with her CIWS. The rounds struck the command GuAIZ's shield and it backed off. As she traced its movement, Cagalli noticed one of the other GuAIZs turning away from her, changing its target.

With no small amount of horror, she saw that the stray machine was approaching the shuttle.

Throttling forward, Cagalli was forced to stop as the GuAIZ holding the plasma cannon suddenly appeared in front of her, leveling its weapon at the Rouge.

"No you don't!" the voice of the enemy came through the speakers.

"That's our subject, thank you very much," the snake-tattooed machine came into view, followed by the other five suits. Cagalli would lose time fighting them, time she needed to get to the shuttle. She didn't know whether they would capture the shuttle to get Kira or destroy it just to keep him from escaping. Either way meant death or suffering for her brother and for Athrun. The Gundam pilot's mind filled with a plethora of emotions: love for the brother who had supported her when she'd lost her father, appreciation for the boyfriend she so often took for granted, fear that she could lose them both right now, and hatred for those who would take them from her.

Behind Cagalli's eyes, a golden seed exploded.

Hands flying across the controls, she threw the Rouge's useless shield at the cannon-carrying mobile suit. The pilot was caught completely off guard and the shield slammed into his machine, sending him tumbling through space. As the first enemy reeled from the shield attack, Cagalli used the now empty left hand to draw the other anti-ship sword. Another GuAIZ made a run at her, and Cagalli rammed both nine meter blades through its cockpit. She pulled as hard to the right as possible, hurling the dead machine off of her swords and sending it crashing into another GuAIZ at high speed. Before the surviving mobile suit could disentangle itself, Cagalli opened up with the Rouge's head Vulcans and riddled it with 76mm rounds.

The command GuAIZ came straight at her, beam rifle firing. Cagalli dodged the electron streams and fired the Vulcans again. Most of the rounds impacted harmlessly against the enemy machine's shield, but a cluster of them took out its right shoulder thruster. The commander narrowly escaped death, firing his remaining thrusters and retreating just fast enough to avoid the Rouge's sword strikes. Ignoring him for now, Cagalli accelerated to maximum velocity and closed in on the suit targeting the shuttle.

The pilot didn't see the Rouge until it was only thirty meters away, and by then it was far too late. The GuAIZ began to bring its beam rifle to bear, but Cagalli was faster. Her left sword cut away the arm holding the rifle, and she swung the right blade through a lateral arc, cutting the mobile suit in half.

* * *

_**Archangel/Raleigh**_**, Bridge**

* * *

"Captain," Byron called out, "the shuttle has docked successfully. Commodore Athha has retrieved Ensign Doolittle and is on her way back." Murrue heard sighs of relief from several members of the bridge crew, and when she looked back she caught Flay very nearly laughing, overjoyed at the news. The captain turned back to face the forward view screens.

"Recall the M1 team," she said, and Byron hesitated. "What is it?"

"What do I tell Captain Waltfeld?" he asked. "We had to tell the supply ship to retreat."

"Tell him to head to this ship. We have room."

* * *

"Squadron Commander," one of the technicians called out. "The enemy ship is withdrawing its mobile suits." Sabato's brow furrowed.

"What's the status of our mobile suit forces?" The parasite operator spoke into his headset for a moment.

"Sir, Commander Stanton and his team are alright, but the Meyers team has taken heavy losses. They're requesting permission to withdraw to the _Tesla_." Sabato nodded, granting permission.

"Tell Stanton and his men to do whatever they can, and get Doctor Sanford on the line. I want to know what the situation is in there."

* * *

"All mobile suits have returned." Murrue nodded.

"Alright," she said. "We're getting out of here. Neumann, drop the bow by forty-five degrees and get us maximum thrust."

"One of the _Nazca_-classes is in our way if we use that trajectory," Commander Herikawa said. "It won't be easy to get around it." Murrue gave him a grim smile.

"Then it's good that we're not going around it." She paused for a moment, satisfied when the commander displayed a truly diabolical grin.

"Aye, Captain," he said, and then turned to address Pal. "Bring both Lohengrins online. Drop proton shielding and set beams for maximum cancellation."

* * *

"Sir, we're detecting measured irradiation being directed at the _Robespierre_."

"Very well," Sabato said. "Aim our main cannons and railguns at the legged ship and prepare a missile barrage. We'll hit them with everything—." He was cut off as two massive beams launched from the _Archangel_'s "legs". Red-white and sheathed in electricity, their appearance didn't distinguish them from any other heavy ion beam or plasma weapon. But Sabato was familiar with the legged ship, and he knew that only one weapons system on that ship looked like that: the positron cannons.

The _Robespierre_ yawed hard to port and accelerated, and one of the antimatter beams went wide, burning its way through the omnipresent debris as it streaked off into the distance. The other shot, however, struck the _Nazca_ about ten meters behind the bridge.

The impact point flashed into a massive, searing white fireball, and the entire vessel warped as the shockwave crashed through it, smashing bulkheads and tearing open hull breach after hull breach. The positron beam continued burrowing into the hull, annihilating more and more matter and releasing a rapidly expanding wedge of flame and blast force. The _Robespierre_'s bridge burst, squirting air, fire and shattered glass into the vacuum. The central thrusters at the stern coughed up exhaust and vaporized metal before tearing apart, and no more than a second after the beam struck, the entire hull swelled outward and tore apart at the seams, masses of violet fire erupting hundreds of meters into space as what was left of the bow and engine pods were hurled away at high speed.

The legged ship flew directly through the explosion, picking up speed as it did so, and quickly began to grow smaller with distance.

For a few moments, everyone on the _Raleigh_'s bridge was left in stunned silence. While they had all inflicted damage on their enemies during the war, it couldn't prepare them for seeing an entire ship destroyed so quickly. After a moment, one of the technicians spoke up.

"Do we follow them, Sir?" Squadron Commander Sabato clenched his jaw. He would see that ship reduced to scrap metal, but as of now, the _Tesla_ and the _Raleigh_ were the only undamaged ships they had. At the moment, they needed to get their bearings.

"Not yet," he finally answered. Sabato picked up the handset on his chair and had the communications officer connect him to Azathoth. After a moment, he got an answer from an unnerved technician. "Calm yourself," he said. "What's the status of the subject?" Sabato's eyes widened as he received a brief summary of events. "How did that happen?"

* * *

**Azathoth**

* * *

"He overpowered you, locked you in this room and escaped?" Dr. Sanford asked. She and Squadron Commander Sabato were now standing in the room that had been used to house Kira, debriefing Serena on the details of the teen's escape.

"That's what happened," Serena said, looking away from her superiors. She wanted it to look like she had been through something traumatic, so she figured she'd just stare into space while describing the "ordeal".

Sabato swore and turned away for a moment, walking toward the door. He stopped just short of walking out into the hallway.

"Wasn't he restrained?" the commander asked, and Sanford looked back at the young medical technician. Serena grimaced.

"I thought he'd be more cooperative if he was allowed more freedom," she said, trying to add just the slightest hint of regret into her voice. "I'm sorry." Sabato exhaled slowly, rubbing his forehead as though he had a migraine.

"When we get him back, I want him restrained at all times, is that understood?" Sanford nodded, and Serena mumbled an affirmative. The military officer walked out of the room.

After a moment, Serena looked up and noticed that Dr. Sanford was still there, looking at her curiously.

"Since I utilized the Eviscerators during the attack," the older woman said, "I felt it prudent to dust off the equipment for working with them." She folded her hands behind her back and stepped just a little closer to Serena. "I noticed that we're missing one of the ultrasonic identifier tags." Serena hesitated for a second.

"I guess he must have taken it after he escaped," she said. Sanford looked right at her, and Serena suddenly understood the rumors about the doctor's unnerving stares. It was exactly like what others had described. Sanford's piercing red eyes seemed to be able to see right through her, stripping away her carefully crafted deception with frightening ease.

"How very clever of him," the scientist said slowly and quietly, and then, finally, she left Serena alone in the room.

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Crew Quarters**

* * *

The alert had finally been dropped, and Kira was allowed out of the hangar. They had put a good distance between themselves and the surviving Advent Faction ships and mobile suits, but they couldn't be certain of not being pursued.

Athrun had been wary of leaving Kira, asking several times if the brunette was sure that he was okay. Kira had assured Athrun that he was unharmed, and had finally been allowed to return to his quarters.

As he reached the hall that led to his room, Kira began to feel the full effect of his ordeal. During his run through the darkened tunnels, during the harrowing shuttle ride through the battle zone and during the following time waiting in the hangar while the _Archangel_ made its escape, he had been on a sort of adrenaline rush, able to ignore the effort he was putting forth. Now, in the absence of any danger, exhaustion hit Kira hard, and he felt his legs getting heavier, causing him to slump against the wall.

He was beginning to think that it would be okay to just sit down, back to the wall, and fall asleep, when he heard soft footsteps coming toward him. Following the sound, Kira looked up, and there she was, his scarlet-haired angel, one fist held over her heart, her eyes brimming with tears, a disbelieving smile on her face.

"Flay," he said, the relief at her safety crystal clear in his voice. Without a word, she ran to him and wrapped her arms around him, and Kira lost himself in the warmth of her embrace, her natural scent, and the feel of her warm, soft lips pressing against his.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Well, I know it took me quite a while to get this to you, but this is a major chapter and I didn't want to rush it. Hopefully, it's worth the wait.

Fllay's thoughts on meeting Lacus is part of what her inner conflict is in this story. She has to deal with a lot of guilt over her actions during _SEED_. Specifically, that thought comes from my many arguments with Fllay's anti-fan club. The most common thing I hear is that her repentance and redemption was too little, too late, and that she shouldn't be forgiven so easily, if at all. I wondered what it would be like if Fllay ever felt that way about herself.

As to Kenji's remarks about Lacus, that was done purely for humor. Don't worry, I'm not going for a Kenji x Lacus pairing.

Something you may also notice during this chapter (although I've done it all through this story and in Second Chance) is that I'll switch back and forth between feet and meters. This is not a slip of the mind. The only two people who see things in feet and inches are Roger and Fllay, both of whom come from the Atlantic Federation. While the EA seems to have adopted the metric system, I figured that average people might still use feet and inches out of habit. Kira, Athrun, Cagalli, etc. all use the metric system in their descriptions.

As to the Eviscerators, I have a very specific scene planned where we'll get to see just what they look like, but until that time comes I want to keep them in the shadows, and I hope that didn't hurt the battle scene too much.

Finally, two technical terms used in this chapter. The Curie point is a real thing. When ferromagnetic materials (like many metals) reach a certain temperature (their Curie point) they lose their magnetism. I figured that anti-beam coating had this quality because of something in Phase-49. Shani Andras fires his plasma cannon at the Duel. The first shot scatters off Yzak's shield, as expected, but the second shot causes the shield to explode. I figured that the first shot, while it was deflected, heated the anti-beam coating to its Curie point. Without its magnetic field, the next shot hit the shield full on, destroying it.

The second term was proton shielding. Firing a beam of antimatter into air is a bad idea, seeing as it's probably going to cause an explosion. Stormturmoil came up with the idea of surrounding the positrons with a shell of protons. Since they have the same charge as the positrons, the two repel each other and therefore don't cause an explosion, and the protons keep air from hitting the positrons. Because the protons have much greater mass, they hold the positrons in check, rather than the positrons pushing them away. The end of the proton tube would remain open, so that the positrons could cancel out some of their target and cause an explosion. Since you don't need the proton shielding in the vacuum of space, I figured the _Archangel_ and similar ships like the _Minerva_ might have the ability to drop their proton shielding in space, which would leave more of the beam's surface area available for matter-antimatter cancellation.


	7. Destination

Disclaimer: I don't own _Gundam SEED_ or any of its characters. Commander Alexander Stanton and his team, as well as Ensign Roger Doolittle, are my own creations

Chapter 7: Destination

* * *

**September 17, CE 72, **_**Archangel**_**, Infirmary**

* * *

The first thing Roger saw on waking was a white fluorescent bulb, set into off-white metal.

"Well," he said, "this is a familiar ceiling." Turning his head left and right, Roger quickly confirmed that he was indeed in a bed in the infirmary. His flight suit was gone, replaced by hospital scrubs, and a set of electrodes was attached to his chest. He moved his left arm and winced at the pain. The Alliance soldier had suffered far worse injuries, but the bandaged limb still hurt.

_Well,_ Roger thought with a rueful grin, _at least I'm not in another full-body cast._ Further rumination would have to wait, as Sara, Athrun and Cagalli chose that moment to enter the infirmary.

"We figured we'd drop by and see how you were doing," Sara said with a smile. Roger shrugged.

"I figured you'd know better than I do," he said. "The last thing I remember was taking a bad hit in my mobile suit, and then I woke up here." Sara nodded, her expression turning serious, and Cagalli spoke up next.

"You took some shrapnel, but the doctor said it's all soft tissue damage. The fragments weren't moving fast enough to break any bones, and your vital organs are all fine. Your Dagger, on the other hand, is scrap metal." Roger's eyes narrowed at that.

"Bitch totaled my mobile suit," he said, nodding grimly. "It's _on_ now." He paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "Alright," he said. "Let's get to it." Roger swung his legs over the side of the bed, slid off, and hit the floor with a dull thud. He looked up at the group, and his frustrated expression asked the question for him.

"You're kind of floppy at the moment," Athrun said, smiling slightly.

"It's a side effect of the painkillers you're on," Sara added. Roger's eyebrows rose.

"Couldn't you have told me that _before_ I fell out of the bed?" he asked.

"I didn't want to deprive you of the experience," Sara replied with a smile.

"Let me guess," Roger said, grabbing the side of the bed and hauling himself back up onto it, "Hiro did that to you." Sara smiled and shook her head.

"I actually did that to him," she said with a smirk. "He had his appendix removed about three months ago, and we went through the same thing you and I did just now." Roger rolled his eyes.

"That's a hell of a way to treat your boyfriend," he observed. Sara shook her head.

"He didn't like it at the time, but he thinks it's pretty funny now." Her expression turned serious; almost sad. "He's probably worried sick about me." Roger nodded thoughtfully.

"Don't worry," the Alliance pilot said seriously. "I won't tell him you're having an affair with Kenji." Sara's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, but her shock quickly turned to amusement.

"I am _not_ having an affair, baka!" Cagalli and Athrun looked at each other, and the blue-haired Coordinator shook his head, bemused.

The joking was interrupted as two new people entered the infirmary. Roger recognized Flay, looking far happier than he'd seen her since they met. There was a new arrival as well; Flay was holding onto a boy a little younger than Roger was, with medium length brunette hair and violet eyes, dressed in an Orb uniform. The Earth Forces pilot's brow furrowed.

_Damn, that guy looks familiar._

Flay indicated the new arrival.

"Roger, this is Kira," she said, and then looked at the boy. "Roger's an Earth Forces pilot who helped with the rescue." The new arrival, Kira, smiled and nodded at Roger, and the Alliance pilot noticed that his lips were a good deal redder than those of most men he'd met. His attention was refocused when Kira suddenly smiled, recognition flashing in his eyes.

"I met you last year!" he said, "right after Jachin." The remark snapped Roger's memory into focus, and he remembered the young Coordinator now: the pilot of the legendary Freedom. He actually laughed at this.

"We rescued _you?_" he asked, surprised and very amused. Athrun's brow furrowed.

"They never gave you a photo of Kira or anything?" the blue-haired Coordinator asked. Roger shook his head, still laughing.

"No," he said. "My orders were to assist with the rescue of an Orb lieutenant. I had no idea we'd be bailing out Spamfire's pilot." Apparently, the nickname the _Churchill_ crew had for the Freedom didn't register, or Kira had other things on his mind because he paid it no heed.

"I'm not sure _you_ bailed me out," the Coordinator said with a small, red-lipped grin. "You seem to have a habit of putting yourself in the infirmary." Roger cocked an eyebrow.

"Tough words from a guy wearing lipstick," he responded. Kira's grin disappeared and he bore a puzzled expression. He and Flay looked at each other; she touched her lips thoughtfully, and after a second Kira blushed furiously. Flay started giggling as the brunette frantically rubbed his mouth on his sleeve.

"Sorry," Flay said to Kira, and then turned to face everyone else. "I guess I got a little enthusiastic when he got back," she finished with a nervous giggle.

"Never a dull moment on this ship, is there?" Roger asked, shaking his head at the whole situation.

* * *

**Space station Azathoth**

* * *

Alexander Stanton stood at the front of the briefing room, facing his assembled pilots. Rodriguez now had his shoulder length black hair pulled back in a ponytail. Hawke, as always, kept his brown hair neatly combed and parted to one side, and Masterson's black hair was parted straight down the middle, and hung down to the level of his prominent cheekbones. Lia and the Amigos were all in their flight suits once more, and the mood in the room was rather mixed. Lia was clearly upset that they'd lost the legged ship; her golden eyes smoldered with restrained anger. The Amigos, on the other hand, seemed fairly satisfied with themselves. Rodriguez, Hawke and Masterson weren't exactly trading jokes, but they seemed pleased with their kill counts. Stanton shook his head.

It wasn't that he was unhappy with their performance. Thanks to them, there were four fewer Naturals out there (Lia had wanted it to be five, but Athha had retrieved the ruined Earth Forces machine, indicating that the pilot had survived), and the PLANTs were that much safer. The only problem was that the Amigos didn't seem to grasp what they all had to do now.

_Well,_ Stanton thought, _I might as well get on with it._ He cleared his throat, getting his team's attention.

"As you know, the _Tesla_ and _Raleigh_ are the only ships we have that are undamaged. Since the _Raleigh_ is undergoing some modifications, we can't afford to send it out after the Orb forces, so the _Tesla_ will go instead." Stanton hesitated for a brief moment. "Until Kane and Pryce are cleared for duty, we are the best the Advent faction has." Rodriguez grinned at this.

"So we get another crack at the legged ship?" he asked. Stanton nodded.

"Very possibly," he answered. "We've been tasked with locating it, which could mean combat."

"How are we supposed to find them?" Lia asked, shaking her head slightly. "They could have gone anywhere." Stanton nodded in response.

"They could have," he answered, "but it's doubtful. The station has very powerful sensors, and while we detected the _Starglider_ and the supply vessel leaving the debris belt, we did not see the _Archangel_ go with them. They did take a fair amount of damage during the siege, and as such are probably waiting somewhere fairly nearby, effecting basic repairs and planning their next move." He turned to the table in the center of the briefing room, which displayed a map of the nearby space. "Alright, this is our plan."

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Bridge**

* * *

"We don't have enough fuel left for a one-tangent transfer orbit," Commander David Herikawa stated with a wave of his arm. "We can pull off a Hohmann transfer orbit and be back to Earth in a little over forty three hours."

"But we can't actually land," Captain Ramius said grimly. David nodded.

"During the battle we lost several of our ablative gel dispensers. The damage is far too severe to repair by ourselves, and if we try atmospheric reentry without the ablative gel…"

"I understand," the captain replied. "So we have to dock somewhere and have the dispensers replaced before we can go home."

"What about the Moon?" The captain looked up, and David followed her gaze to see Ensign Doolittle enter the bridge, followed by Athrun. The Earth Forces soldier was the one who had spoken, and Herikawa's brow furrowed.

"You want us to head for Daedalus?" Athrun asked, but Doolittle shook his head.

"The far side of the Moon? Hell no. The way I hear it, the Daedalus guys are kind of hardliners," he said. "Rumor has it they're still sympathetic to Blue Cosmos, so a ship full of defectors carrying the Ultimate Coordinator probably shouldn't land there. On the other hand, I know quite a few guys from Arzachel, and they're good people."

"Besides," he grinned. "I'd _love_ to see those Advent Faction SOBs try to get inside Arzachel." David still didn't like the idea of docking at an Alliance base, much less their lunar headquarters. Those supposed "good people", after all, were part of the army that had burned Onogoro one year ago. He looked over at Captain Ramius, and was more than a little relieved to see her shake her head after thinking for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Ensign Doolittle," she said, "but I still find it difficult to trust the Alliance." David looked back at the Earth Forces officer and saw him rolling his eyes.

"However," the captain continued, "that is not the primary reason I don't want to head for the moon." Ramius gestured to the main view screen and tapped a button on her chair. A map of the Earth Sphere appeared on the screen, with a small green dot representing the _Archangel_ sitting in the debris belt. "We can only enter a Hohmann transfer orbit when we and our destination point are in the right positions relative to one another. We're getting close but we're not aligned for our entry burn yet." She tapped another key on her armrest, and a line representing the lunar orbit appeared on the map, along with the Lagrange points. Captain Ramius faced the other occupants of the bridge.

"The PLANTs are at L5," she said, "which is sixty degrees from the Moon itself, meaning our entry point for the transfer orbit will be that much closer. Given the velocities of the relative orbits…" Captain Ramius paused for a moment while the ship's computer did the math. "If we head for the PLANTs instead of the Moon, we'll save over two and a half days." Ensign Doolittle nodded, and David did the same.

"If the Advent Faction really is made up of deserters," Commander Herikawa said, "then ZAFT certainly won't be giving them a warm welcome either."

"I can send word that we're coming," Athrun said, and Captain Ramius nodded.

"We should be ready to make way in about four hours."

* * *

Roger sighed with frustration as he walked down the corridor. He supposed he should have expected the Orb forces not to trust him, given what had happened just one year before. Still, it was aggravating beyond belief.

_Blue Cosmos seizes control of the Alliance, and somehow __**everyone**__ in the OMNI Enforcer and Atlantic Federation suddenly become terrorists!_ Roger did his best to shake off his irritation; he had other matters to attend to, like his current dearth of mobile suits. If he could find that Orb soldier, Kira, he might be able to remedy the situation, but it was proving quite difficult to find the kid.

"Excuse me, Ensign Doolittle," Captain Ramius's voice brought Roger back to reality, and he turned to find the officer standing behind him.

"You can call me Roger," he replied, and the woman smiled.

"Roger," she said, "I just want you to know that what I said about not trusting the Alliance—." Roger started to wave the comment off. Just because it pissed him off didn't mean that the captain should have to apologize for it. However, the brunette raised her own hand, telling him to wait.

"Just because I don't completely trust your superiors," she said, "doesn't mean that I don't trust _you_." Roger remained quiet for a moment, and Captain Ramius stepped forward and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "After how hard you've fought to defend this ship and the people on it, I want you to know that I consider you a part of the crew, and I'm willing to bet that plenty of the pilots consider you a friend." She punctuated her last statement with a warm smile, and while Roger could do nothing but nod, he very much appreciated what he had just been told. He'd honestly never expected that the Orb crew would be as tolerant of an Alliance officer as they had, much less that they would come to consider him one of their own, and it was deeply moving to know that they did.

"Thank you very much, Captain Ramius," he said, and it was the superior officer's turn to dismiss a remark with a wave of her hand.

"If I can call you Roger, you can call me Murrue." Roger nodded, smiling.

"Thank you," he said. "By the way, you didn't happen to see…" He trailed off as Kira walked into a hall intersection a little way ahead of them. "Excuse me," he said quickly, "but I have something else to take care of." Sprinting away from the captain, Roger caught up to Kira, the brunette giving him a slightly puzzled look.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Roger shook his head, catching his breath for a moment before replying.

"Nothing's wrong, but I was wondering if you could help me with something."

"Sure," the brunette said, nodding. Roger smiled.

"I've heard you did some programming work with a mobile suit OS," he said. Kira smiled and nodded in affirmation.

"I created the Natural-compatible OS that the Astrays use."

"That is _exactly_ what I wanted to hear," Roger said.

* * *

_**Tesla**_**, Bridge**

* * *

_"Is there anything yet?"_ Lia Cromwell asked over the intercom. From his commander's chair, Alexander Stanton shook his head, although he knew she couldn't see it.

"Nothing yet," he answered. The _Tesla_ was positioned at an optimal observation point, a fair distance from Azathoth and just outside the debris belt. Squadron Commander Sabato had figured that the legged ship would head for one of two destinations: the Moon or the PLANTs. It was always possible they'd head for Earth and try for reentry, but Sabato, Sanford and Stanton all doubted it. The _Archangel_ probably wouldn't want to suffer the heat and ram pressure of reentry while damaged.

Assuming they didn't travel too far from the station before breaking away from the debris belt, the enemy would emerge on one of two trajectories, and the _Tesla_ was sitting directly between them. If the legged ship made a move, they'd see it.

It was still something of a gamble, of course. Just because they'd damaged the _Archangel_ at Azathoth didn't make the ship a sitting duck, and Yamato's skill in a mobile suit was the stuff of legend. They could only hope that there wasn't a spare suit he could use. After all, as good as Lia, the Amigos and he were, Stanton had no illusions about defeating Kira Yamato in battle.

"Commander," one of the technicians called out. "We're reading a signal breaking away from the belt. Stanton's brow furrowed.

"Identify it," he said. There was a moment of relative quiet, as the bridge crew worked to focus the sensors and refine the image of the ship.

"The signal matches the legged ship; it's headed for the PLANTs." Stanton smiled. Out of the two courses the enemy could have taken, their current one brought them slightly closer to the _Tesla_'s position.

"If we move to intercept, how long will it be before our paths cross?" he asked.

"About a week," was the reply. Stanton nodded.

"Let's get underway."

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Crew Quarters**

* * *

Kira breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled off his uniform jacket. Too tired to put it away, he simply tossed the item of clothing on the floor, along with his pants. Clad in his boxers and undershirt, he pulled back the covers on his bunk and slid beneath them. While he had nothing against Roger, the Earth Forces pilot could get rather...well…insistent, and he'd almost been watching over Kira's shoulder while the brunette had designed the new OS he wanted. To put it mildly, Kira was glad to be done.

Behind him, Kira heard the rustling of Flay's clothes as she finished undressing. Clad in what Kira knew were her tank top and panties, she crawled in next to him, and he felt her arms wrap around his waist, the length of her body pressing against his. The young Coordinator felt his skin heat and his body respond to the contact, and he smiled a little as he rolled over to face Flay.

Any thoughts of a romantic interlude, however, vanished when Kira saw her face. Flay was looking at him, but there was worry behind her eyes, the grey-blue orbs like storm clouds, veiling turmoil within.

"What's wrong?" he asked, brushing her bangs out of her face. Flay looked away for a moment, hesitating. Finally, she felt ready to speak.

"It's not a big thing, I guess," she said quietly. "It's just that, well, Lacus is here and I just don't know—." Kira cut her off, kissing her forehead.

"Lacus isn't angry at you," he said, rubbing her shoulders reassuringly. "She doesn't hold grudges, and she knows you're a good person, so you shouldn't feel guilty around her, okay?" Flay smiled and nodded, her eyes watering a little.

"Kira," she said. "You know I love you, right?"

_What prompted that?_

"Of course I do," he replied. "What made you ask that?"

"I just don't want you to think I take you for granted," Flay replied, reaching up to brush away a stray tear. Kira smiled.

"I don't think that," he said, leaning forward and kissing her softly on the lips. Flay snuggled up against him, Kira pulled the covers over them and they quietly settled down to sleep.

* * *

**September 24, CE 72**

* * *

The combat alarm went off as Roger was walking through the crew quarters, getting rid of some excess energy.

_Well,_ he thought, _I guess I get to work that energy off on the battlefield._

Up ahead, doors slid open as personnel who had been resting were summoned to their posts. Most of the crewmembers rushing past were unfamiliar to Roger, but he recognized Kenji, Maria and Sara as they darted by, and he hastened to join them. After a few seconds, Sara noticed him.

"What are you doing?" she asked. Roger cocked an eyebrow.

"What do you think?" he responded. "I'm coming with you." Sara took on a concerned expression.

"Then be careful," she said. "When I talk to Hiro again, I don't want to have to tell him I made an interesting new friend…and then he got killed." Roger chuckled at the remark.

"Oh, don't you worry," he said. "I've got a little surprise for the enemy."

* * *

Lia broke formation, Masterson and Hawke following her as they headed for the legged ship's bow.

The plan was fairly simple. Since they didn't have the firepower to destroy the ship on their own, they would just have to slow it down. So Lia, Commander Stanton and two of the Amigos would engage the Orb mobile suit forces, providing enough distraction for Rodriguez to circle around back and destroy the ship's main thrusters with the Hellfire cannon.

Of course, there had been the inevitable joke about taking the enemy from the rear. Lia shook her head at the memory.

"Men are pigs," she said to no one in particular.

"You aren't exactly a saint yourself, Cromwell," Masterson shot back, alerting Lia to the fact that her com link had been on.

"Cut the chatter," Stanton interrupted. "Here we go." As if on cue, the _Archangel_'s CIWS opened up, showering them with tracer fire. Electron beams, hypervelocity projectiles and explosive shells streaked back and forth between the legged ship and the _Tesla_, and Lia pulled her GuAIZ down below the enemy vessel.

"This is too easy," she said, lining up a beam shot even as she spoke. "Where the hell are the Orb mobile suits?" No sooner had she said that than a cockpit alarm went off, and Lia barely managed to evade as a high velocity electron beam streaked past. Tracing it back to its source, she spotted the Astray variant, painted in those unmistakable orange and yellow hues. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who recognized the color scheme. As four standard Astrays came around the side of the legged ship, Commander Stanton spoke.

"Masterson, kill the tiger," he said. "Lia, you, Hawke and I will take these others."

"Copy that," she said, beginning to move toward the four M1s. Suddenly, however, her cockpit alarm went off again, and she screamed, pushing her machine into full reverse as something nightmarish came straight at her.

She was just fast enough, and the enemy machine's attack missed her by perhaps one meter. Lia was grateful that she had turned her com link off a moment ago; she didn't want her enemy to know he had rattled her like that.

The new machine was disturbingly similar to one of the three GAT-X models that had been at Jachin, save for the fact that its massive shoulder cannons and shield were missing. Instead, the teal machine sported two small shields on its wrists, similar to descriptions Lia had heard of the legendary Strike's Panzer Eisen device. What looked like the handles of beam boomerangs projected from the thing's shoulders, and it held a massive anti-ship sword in each hand, the blades' emerald beam components glowing menacingly.

"Impressive," Lia said over the com link, regaining her composure.

"Oh, it's you again!" the voice confirmed that the Alliance pilot had indeed survived.

"You got off on luck during the last battle," she said. "G-weapon or not, I'll kill you this time."

"Bring it _on!_" Lia opened fire with her beam rifle. The enemy mobile suit dodged her first shot and took her second on one of its shields. Growling with frustration, Lia extended the GuAIZ's beam claws and rushed her opponent.

* * *

Athrun pulled his Astray to the right, avoiding the command GuAIZ's extensional arrestor and responding with a shot from his beam rifle.

"How come Lieutenant Yamato isn't out here?" Kenji Tiran's voice emerged from Athrun's cockpit speakers. "He could probably take these guys blindfolded." Athrun laughed; Kenji was probably right.

"I wish he were out here," the blue-haired Coordinator replied, "but we're kind of short on mobile suits at the moment." He fired on the command GuAIZ again as he spoke into the com link, turning it into an open transmission.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked. "You're outnumbered and outgunned. You can't win this." Perhaps a hundred meters away, Athrun saw Kenji's Astray moving to flank the tattooed machine, but the commander evaded the tactic, accelerating upward and away from Athrun and Kenji as they fired.

"That all depends," the Advent Faction soldier said. "Who don't you see here?" Athrun grinned in response.

"I don't know," he replied. "Who don't _you_ see here?"

* * *

Allen Rodriguez drifted into position behind the legged ship. Thus far, it had all gone very smoothly, with the Orb forces going straight for the distraction and leaving him free to do his work. As he locked on with the Hellfire, Rodriguez savored the anticipation of what was probably the biggest explosion he would ever cause.

He really did have an awesome job.

"Legged ship goes up in flames in three, two, on—," Rodriguez stopped as his cockpit alarm went off, and he hissed as he let go of the Hellfire with his GuAIZ's left hand and brought up his shield just in time to block the incoming beam shot.

"Thought you might try something like this," Lady Cagalli said over the com link as the Strike Rouge interposed itself between Rodriguez and his target. "I figured I'd hold back from the others just in case." The Advent Faction pilot grimaced.

"How fortunate," he said. Rodriguez made to use the Hellfire, but was pushed back as more electron beams hammered on his shield.

* * *

Athrun brought his beam saber down on the command GuAIZ's shield, pressing the attack and forcing the enemy machine back. Taking advantage of the momentary break, he scanned the rest of the fight.

The GuAIZ that had engaged Waltfeld must have figured that the M1A's lack of a shield would make it an easy melee target. Unfortunately for the enemy pilot, that weakness did not escape Waltfeld's attention, and he was using his mobile suit's maneuverability to give his opponent fits, dancing out of reach of the Advent Faction soldier's beam claws and delivering the occasional beam shot in response.

Sara, Maria and Kenji were occupied with a combination of the sharp-shooting GuAIZ and fire from the _Laurasia_-class several kilometers away. Nevertheless, they were holding their own.

Roger and the remaining GuAIZ had once again spun off into their own little duel. While the Alliance solder had had very little time to familiarize himself with the Sword Calamity, he was doing quite well, dodging or deflecting his enemy's attacks, although he had yet to land a blow himself.

Athrun refocused on the command machine as it opened fire with its beam rifle.

"Had enough yet?" the enemy pilot asked. Athrun laughed.

"No," he replied, lashing out with his saber and slicing the fin off the enemy machine's head. "Have you?"

* * *

Rodriguez dodged another beam saber strike and fired all of his thrusters, getting as much distance as possible. His opponent moved to draw her beam rifle.

"Screw that!" he yelled, raising the Hellfire. Not even bothering to lock on, he pointed the massive cannon at the G-weapon and fired.

For a moment, it seemed that he had failed. The Strike Rouge darted out of the way, and the plasma beam went wide. Rodriguez smiled, however, when the crimson beam continued on and struck one of the legged ship's portside thrusters, setting off a massive explosion.

"Burn, baby, burn!" he cried out, firing again and blasting another afterburner. As he lined up his third shot, however, the Rouge struck from above, slicing away the GuAIZ's right arm.

"Damn it!" Rodriguez shouted. "Just when I was getting something done…" Holding on to the Hellfire with his machine's remaining hand, he beat a hasty retreat.

* * *

Lia was beyond frustrated. Nothing she did seemed to work on the new Alliance machine.

_Why won't you DIE!_

She opened fire again, and again the enemy blocked the shot with one of its small shields. Pointing the same arm at her, the Earth Forces mobile suit fired the Panzer Eisen. The metal claw clamped onto the GuAIZ's right arm, and the G-weapon yanked on the cord, pulling itself and the GuAIZ closer together and swinging its right sword at the same time. Lia managed to bring her shield up, and the anti-ship blade crashed against the barrier.

"Bastard!" she snarled, firing her CIWS at the enemy…and crying out in anger as the heavy bullets ricocheted off without leaving a scratch.

"Hah!" the enemy pilot laughed over the radio. "Trans-Phase armor, ho!" Lia hissed and pushed away. The Earth Forces pilot moved to stow one of his swords, and Lia took the opportunity and fired her extensional arrestors, beam blades active.

The Alliance mobile suit fired its thrusters and inverted completely. As the arrestors passed under its head, the G-weapon swept the anti-ship sword it was holding through a downward arc, slicing cleanly through the cables.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this," the enemy pilot said, highly amused by the situation. Lia was working to come up with a witty retort when she was interrupted by Commander Stanton.

"All units fall back." Lia couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"I can take this guy," she said. "I know I can—."

"I said fall back! This isn't worth all of us getting killed."

"Understood, Sir," she forced the words out. Sparing one last look at the Earth Forces mobile suit, she began moving back towards the _Tesla_.

Before this was over, she would kill that pilot.

* * *

_**Tesla**_**, Pilots' Ready Room**

* * *

Lia threw her helmet across the room. It rebounded off the opposite wall and spun through the air in the weightless environment. Masterson wasn't doing any better.

"Freaking Orb soldiers are getting on my nerves," he growled. Hawke, stoic as ever, remained relatively calm, although his expression was dour.

"_Your_ nerves?" Rodriguez demanded with an incredulous expression. "My machine lost an arm!" That was enough.

"Quit it!" Alexander yelled. "You lose your heads out there and those Orb soldiers won't hesitate to kill you." The pilots grew silent, and Stanton felt some of the tension dissipating. "Now," he said, "did we manage to disable the legged ship?" Rodriguez shook his head.

"I took out a couple of thrusters on one side, so they'll have to slow down unless they want to fly in circles, but they didn't lose all maneuvering capacity." Stanton nodded.

"Alright, I'll send a report back to Azathoth. In the meantime, we'll repair your machines and get ready for our next attack." As imagined, the mobile suit team was more than a little dubious.

"What good is that going to do?" Masterson asked. "We didn't even _damage_ any of their mobile suits in this battle. What makes you think that the next one will go differently?" Stanton waited until he was finished, and then spoke.

"You noticed, I take it, that our GuAIZs are not the only mobile suits on this ship." There was a moment of silence, so the commander continued. "Jason Pryce," he called out, and a young man with neck-length blonde hair and blue eyes, garbed in the unmistakable red of a ZAFT ace, entered the room, "I believe your final viral infusion has run its course." The new arrival nodded.

"I've also taken the Herald to its limits," he said, "at least as far as simulations indicate." He looked at Stanton's team, and an icy smile, unsettlingly akin to Dr. Sanford's, crossed his face. "I believe our next sortie will be very interesting."

* * *

**Author's Note: **I realize that Lacus wasn't in this chapter, and I'm sorry about that, but I just couldn't find a spot where it felt right to put her in. I guess what I'm saying is don't worry; I haven't forgotten about her.

The rivalry between Roger and Lia is growing more intense, and as you may have suspected, she is his nemesis for the story.

While Fllay is still having her own inner conflict, she's definitely more comfortable now that Kira's back on the ship.

Next Chapter: The _Tesla_ gives chase, and the first of the Advent Faction's "enhanced" coordinator pilots makes his combat debut.


	8. Darkness

Disclaimer: I don't own _Gundam SEED_ or any of its characters. Ensign Roger Doolittle, Astray pilots Sara Nakamura, Kenji Tiran and Maria Velasquez, Commander Alexander Stanton and his team, Ensign Jason Pryce and the A-ZGMF-X22A Herald are my creations.

Chapter 8: Darkness

* * *

**Lagrange Point 5, ZAFT Military Station**

* * *

Yzak Joule had mixed feelings about his job as a commander. At times, it brought him a great sense of pride to lead his own team.

At the moment, however, pride was not exactly what he was feeling. The silver-haired youth sighed as he pressed a button on the wall-mounted console and the door to the communications room slid open.

"What do we have?" he asked as he walked into the room. The nearest technician, a young man in a standard green uniform, put a hand over the receiver in his headset and answered.

"Commander Joule, we're getting a transmission from a ship claiming to be the _Archangel_." Yzak frowned.

"What?" He paused for a moment before continuing. "Does it check out?"

"Yes, Sir," the technician responded. "The identification codes match the Orb warship." After a moment of puzzled silence, Yzak answered.

"Accept the communication," he said, his brow furrowing.

_I never thought I'd get a call from __**that**__ ship._ The door behind Yzak opened with a soft hiss. Turning around, the silver-haired man caught sight of two of his teammates, Dearka Elsman and Shiho Hahnenfuss. The former had decided, unlike Yzak, to alter his hairstyle significantly since his reenlistment, allowing his blonde hair to grow out quite a bit and combing it back, so that it now fell behind him to just above the base of his neck.

Shiho was a different matter entirely. Her dark brown hair was cut in a style nearly identical to Yzak's, at least in the front; in back, it fell down to her waist. Both were dressed in the red uniforms denoting elite ZAFT pilots.

For reasons Yzak would never understand, Shiho dressed in the male version of the red uniform, eschewing the skirt in favor of the long coat and pants Dearka wore.

"So," the blonde asked, "what's going on?" Yzak looked back at the technician as he answered, as though seeking confirmation.

"We've been contacted by the legged ship," he said. The technician, who had been conversing for a few moments now, looked up.

"The message comes from Athrun Zala," he said, causing Yzak's eyes to widen considerably.

_Zala? Fantastic._

"What did he say?" the commander asked.

"He stated that the _Archangel_ is coming here," the technician responded. Yzak was nearly at a loss for words…nearly.

"Why the hell is that guy contacting us now?" he asked, no small amount of frustration evident in his voice. Out of the corner of his eye, Yzak caught Dearka displaying a wry grin.

"Obviously, he's telling you that he's on his way," the blonde quipped.

"Point," Shiho added.

"Hahnenfuss, do _not_ encourage him," Yzak returned. Sometimes it was like he was the only sane member of his team…

"Zala added that the ship was being pursued and that the hostiles might follow them here," the technician added. In a strange way, that actually made Yzak feel a little more excited about seeing his former teammate again. Looking back to Dearka, he realized that the redcoat's grin matched his own.

"Uh, Commander?" Shiho asked, perhaps a little disturbed by the looks on their faces. Yzak chuckled softly and turned back to the technician.

"Tell Zala that we'll roll out the welcome mat for him," he said, and then addressed Dearka and Shiho. He already knew how Dearka would respond, and he surmised that Hahnenfuss would follow along, but he asked the question nonetheless. "How do you two feel about spending some time in your mobile suits?"

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Mess Hall**

* * *

"You know, it's really too bad they don't have champagne onboard," Roger said, "because that was _awesome_."

"Aren't you underage?" Sara asked.

"People keep fussing over that detail," Roger remarked, shaking his head. "Anyway, I'm just saying that was the only fight I've been in since joining you guys that was actually _fun_." At the other end of the table, Kira laughed.

"You just got a Gundam," he said, grinning. "I think you're on a power trip." This caused Flay to laugh. Roger was somewhat more puzzled.

"What's a Gundam?" the Alliance pilot asked, reminding Kira that the word wasn't widely used.

"When the OS comes online, it reads G-U-N-D—," Kira started, causing Roger to nod in understanding.

"I see," he said. "It's an anagram."

"Acronym," Sara corrected. Roger shrugged.

"Whatever." The conversation paused for a moment as Athrun entered the room and took a seat at the table.

"I managed to contact ZAFT," he said. "They granted us permission to dock." Kira nodded, but there was another concern.

"What about the Advent Faction ship that was following us?" the brunette asked. Athrun smiled.

"There'll be a mobile suit team waiting at the PLANTs," he said. "I didn't ask for one, but Yzak won't pass up a chance to get into the cockpit." Kira grinned at that. From what Athrun had told him about the Duel pilot, that was probably true.

"You know," Kenji said, "I'm surprised ZAFT is willing to help you out so much. I mean, it's not every day they bend over backwards to accommodate someone who defected to Orb; it's kind of weird." Kira shook his head.

"Chairwoman Canaver understands the situation we found ourselves in," the violet-eyed Coordinator said. "ZAFT made certain allowances for actions taken during the war, so Athrun isn't looked at as a traitor."

"Besides," Roger put in, "acting accusatory is the last thing anyone wants to do right now. Everyone's trying their best not to provoke another war, so it's really not that weird." Kira knew the yellow-eyed pilot had a point. His very presence was proof that the Earth Alliance was attempting to mollify ZAFT and Orb. Conversation paused once more as a small mechanical whirring announced the arrival of Lacus and her Haro. The songstress approached the table and smiled.

"Hello, Kira," she said. "It's good to see you."

"Hey, Lacus," he replied.

"Haro! Haro, Lacus!" The pink automaton bounced up onto the table. Roger's eyebrow rose.

"Speaking of weird stuff," he said, addressing Lacus, "who makes those things?"

"Actually," Athrun responded, "I built that."

There was a moment of stunned silence. Roger stared at Athrun as though he had grown a second head.

"What were you _smoking?_" he asked. Kira laughed, and Athrun smiled and shrugged.

"Lacus liked it," he said. The pink-haired girl nodded in confirmation.

"I liked it so much that Athrun made me more," she said. "I have about a dozen now." Roger slapped a hand over his face.

"You built _more_ of them?" The Alliance pilot shook his head in disbelief. Kira laughed. He'd never seen anything wrong with Lacus' pet robots, so it was quite amusing to see Roger's reaction to them.

"So, Kira, are you feeling better?" Lacus asked, redirecting the conversation. He nodded.

"I'm feeling kind of tired, but maybe that's normal after being kidnapped," he said, smiling a little at his own understatement.

"I'd imagine that it is," Lacus said, smiling in return. "It's good to know you're safe."

"So," Kira asked, "how have things been with you?"

"Well, I've been very busy," she said, "but it's worth it. There's a lot of remaining tension between the Alliance and the PLANTs, and we've been working to help things along, usually by moderating discussions between the two groups."

"It's good to know there's progress being made," Kira said. Whatever he was about to say next left his mind when he heard the chair next to him moving. It had been months since he'd had a chance to spend time with Lacus, and Kira had been enjoying this conversation so much that he had almost forgotten that Flay was there. Turning, Kira saw that she was getting up to leave. "You don't have to leave, Flay," he said.

"No, it's alright," she replied, but her voice and facial expression betrayed that she was anything but alright; a sort of shy sadness was evident in both. Kira reached out and took her hand.

"Hey," he said. "What's the matter?" Flay simply shook her head.

"I just...I just have to go back to our room for now, okay?" At a loss for anything to say, Kira just nodded, letting go of her hand and allowing Flay to leave.

"I'm not sure why she's so upset…" Kira trailed off as he saw that Lacus didn't look too comfortable either.

"I think I should go as well," the pink-haired Coordinator said. Kira didn't even manage a question before she stood and departed. Confused, Kira looked over at Athrun.

"Did I say something wrong?" he asked.

"If you did, I didn't hear it," he replied. Both boys looked at Roger, who simply shrugged.

"Women," the Alliance soldier said. In the seat opposite from him, Sara rolled her eyes.

* * *

**September 26, CE 72, **_**Tesla**_**, Bridge**

* * *

"I've received word from the deck crew that your machines have been repaired and re-supplied," Stanton said, scanning his assembled team. "We're coming up on the legged ship, so we're going to try one last attack.

"We're getting pretty close to the PLANTs, aren't we?" Lia asked. Commander Stanton nodded.

"Sensors have picked up several ZAFT ships out ahead of the usual traffic," he said. "Once we engage the legged ship, we'll have fifteen minutes until we enter their firing range."

"I can't believe this," Rodriguez said, shaking his head. "We're going to have to break off our attack because ZAFT will be protecting the Naturals." The GuAIZ pilot made no effort to hide the bitterness in his voice. Stanton understood.

While there had been a very large percentage of ZAFT that recognized Naturals as a threat, most of them had not held on to this view. As the fighting had drawn to a close at Jachin Due, most had chosen to remain with ZAFT, even if it meant taking the path of Clyne and Canaver. Worse still, many ZAFT soldiers had actually started to _believe_ in coexisting with the Naturals. That was a dangerous idea, and it made the Advent Faction's mission all the more important.

"All of you stand by in your machines," Stanton ordered. As the pilots left the bridge, he called out to the new addition. "Pryce, I would like a word." The blonde held out a hand, grabbing the doorframe and bringing himself to a halt.

"Commander?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"During our past sorties against the legged ship, I've discovered that Athrun Zala has stayed on as one of their mobile suit pilots," the commander stated. "Unless Yamato himself gets into a suit, Zala is our most dangerous opponent out there. I had hoped to be able to personally pay him back for his betrayal, but I'm not too proud to admit that I can't do that." He paused for a moment, looking at Pryce. "I was hoping you could take care of him." The blonde pilot looked pensive for a moment, before an icy smile, eerily akin to Dr. Sanford's, took shape on his face.

"I'll see what I can do," he said.

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Crew Quarters**

* * *

Kira caught up to Flay in the hallway outside of their room. she'd been finding excuses not to talk to him for the past few days, at least not about whatever was bothering her, but this time there was no convenient excuse, so maybe they could finally make some progress.

"Flay," he said as he came to a stop, "what's making you upset?"

"Kira," she replied softly, never turning to face him, "I…I can't—."

"Please, Flay," Kira pleaded. "You know you can tell me anything."

"Not this," she said, and her voice suggested that she was on the verge of tears. "This is different." Kira was about to ask her what that meant when the combat alarm went off.

_"All hands, Level One battle stations!"_ Flay departed, heading toward the bridge, and Kira followed. Partly, he wanted to know what she thought she couldn't tell him, but there was also the fact that he didn't have anything to do on the ship at this point, and sitting around while combat took place was killing him. There had to be something he could do.

* * *

**Open Space**

* * *

"How far are we from the PLANTs?" Athrun asked as he left the catapult. The Strike Rouge followed him out.

"Not far," Cagalli responded. "We just have to hold out until then."

"Why settle for holding out?" Roger inquired as the Sword Calamity launched. "We have them outnumbered seven to five; I could go ahead and slice that ship to pieces." Before anyone else could answer, Athrun activated his com link.

"Don't get overconfident," he said. "I killed a G-weapon pilot back at Jachin Due. Just being in one of those doesn't make you invincible."

"Ensign Doolittle and I may be the only ones in Gundams," Cagalli said, "but the same advice goes for all of you. Don't try for anything other than keeping our ship safe."

"Copy that," Roger and Kenji replied.

"Comprendo," Maria answered.

"Understood, Cagalli-sama," Sara responded.

"Will you stop calling me that?" Cagalli shot back.

"Sorry," Sara replied, her tone of voice telling Athrun that she was enjoying the situation. "I couldn't help myself."

After launching its mobile suits, the _Archangel_ had turned around and was heading for the PLANTs at the best speed it could manage. This meant that the Gottfrieds couldn't be used, but the ship was hardly defenseless. The Valiants swung around, pointing back at the enemy now, and twin hypervelocity projectiles flashed from the linear cannons. The _Laurasia_-class responded with a salvo from its beam cannons and railguns, and the five GuAIZs rushed at the Orb machines once more. Athrun braced himself for another attack from the command machine, but it never came. Instead, the tattooed GuAIZ went straight for the Rouge.

"Cagalli," Athrun started.

"I see him," she replied over the radio. The Rouge opened fire with its beam rifle; the command GuAIZ took the blast on its shield and returned fire with its own weapon. Turning one's back on an opponent was a rather serious mistake, and Athrun aimed his Astray's beam rifle, intending to show the enemy commander just how bad a mistake he had made.

* * *

Lia fired her rifle, sending an electron beam at the Alliance machine. It sprang to the left, avoiding the shot. For her next attack, she fired to the right of it and then to the left, attempting to get the G-weapon to walk into a shot. The enemy mobile suit dodged one beam and blocked the other, firing one of its Panzer Eisens at her. Lia dodged and fired both extensional arrestors, their beam blades inactive. The metal claws grabbed her opponent's two anti-ship swords, and Lia reeled in the cables, pulling the G-weapon toward her and keeping it from moving its swords. She was forced to change tactics, however, when a roiling crimson-white ion beam burst from an opening in the enemy suit's chest. Lia released the grip she had on her opponent's weapons and jetted upwards, narrowly avoiding the attack.

"In case you're wondering," the Alliance pilot's voice came over her com link, "the answer is yes, I really am this awesome."

"Damn Natural!" she hissed, extending her machine's beam claws and rushing forward.

* * *

Cagalli fired the Aile Striker's thrusters and dove to the side, evading a shot from the command GuAIZ's beam rifle.

"What exactly makes you think you can just focus on me?" she asked, returning fire. On the left side of her CIS, she could see Athrun's Astray closing in, beam rifle at the ready.

"If you're worried about Zala being left all alone," the enemy replied, "then you need not fear." As if to punctuate his statement, the Rouge's sensors alerted Cagalli to a sixth mobile suit launching from the enemy ship.

"_Archangel_, can you identify the new suit?" she asked. Terrence Byron's voice emerged from her radio a few seconds later.

"Negative, Commodore Athha; its thermal profile doesn't match anything in the library." Cagalli refocused on the command GuAIZ, but the blip on her sensors had her more worried.

_What are you?_

* * *

Athrun turned away from the Rouge and its opponent to face the new arrival. No sooner had he done so than his cockpit alarm went off, and he barely brought his shield up in time to block a shot from the new suit's beam rifle.

Just over eighteen meters tall, the machine was very different from a GuAIZ, bearing a more human-like head with a two-eyed visual system and a distinct V-fin. The body and limbs were slenderer than those of a GuAIZ, more like what one would find on an Astray, and the whole thing was colored in black and grey. The mobile suit's most distinct feature, however, was the small backpack it bore. The pack itself was nothing more than a thruster array, but extending from it were two wings, fifteen meters long and ending in arrow-shaped tips. As the machine drew closer, the wings swung up and arrayed themselves over the mobile suit's shoulders, firing small thrusters on their rear edges for finer maneuverability. The enemy suit held a beam rifle in one hand, while the other held a shield, the lower half of which bore a sharp-looking edge and came to a wicked point.

"Athrun Zala, I presume," the enemy asked through the com link.

"The same," Athrun replied, "and you are?"

"Jason Pryce," the pilot of the new suit answered. "I must say, it's something of an honor to meet the legendary Red Knight of ZAFT, although I hardly expected to find you piloting something like _that_."

"I'm not going to waste time talking to you," Athrun said, drawing the M1's beam saber. A chuckle emerged from the radio.

"Well said, Zala." The enemy machine reached behind its shoulder and drew its own beam saber. Almost before Athrun realized what was happening, the new machine's thrusters fired and it surged forward, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye and lashing out with its beam saber. Athrun parried the blow, but just barely. He responded with a burst from the Astray's CIWS, but the rounds just bounced off the back and grey machine.

"Phase Shift armor," Athrun said.

"You figured that out fast," Pryce answered. "Apparently, working with the apes hasn't dulled your intelligence any." Athrun lashed out with his own saber, but the enemy machine, apparently a G-weapon, darted out of the way.

* * *

Roger backed up, narrowly avoiding another strike from the GuAIZ's beam claws. Jokes about their respective skill levels aside, he knew that the only thing that had kept him from being damaged thus far was the fact that he had the superior machine. Roger might be a better pilot than his opponent, but it was by the narrowest of margins.

As the Advent Faction pilot closed in again, an electron beam streaked toward her, forcing her to break off her attack to block it.

"Don't think you can have all the fun," Sara's voice emerged from Roger's com link. The Earth Forces pilot smiled.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he replied. While Sara engaged the GuAIZ, Roger shifted his attention to the new machine Athrun was fighting. He tapped on the controls, snapping the Sword Calamity's two anti-ship swords together. The weapons aligned alongside one another and their electron blades flowed together. The result was a weapon that was the same length as a standard Schwert Gewehr, but with double the mass and a much thicker beam blade. It would be slower than an individual sword, but a lot harder to parry.

The black and grey mobile suit dodged one slash from Athrun's beam saber and blocked another with its shield. It returned fire with its CIWS, forcing Athrun to fall back, holding up his shield to stop the armor-piercing rounds. Roger chose that moment to make his move, rushing the enemy and swinging his combined weapon.

"Block this!" he shouted. The sword swung with incredible kinetic force, meeting no resistance…

The weapon cut through the vacuum where the enemy mobile suit had been a split second ago. Roger had barely registered that fact before his cockpit alarm went off. The enemy was directly above him.

_SHIT this guy's fast!_

The dark machine didn't attack with its saber. Instead, it swung its shield forward, using the pointed end to slash at Roger. The Alliance soldier grinned.

_Bastard doesn't know about my Trans-Phase arm—_

His grin disappeared as the shield edge sliced cleanly through the Sword Calamity's head, taking out one of the optical cameras.

"Holy _shit!_" Roger backed off as Athrun attacked the enemy machine again. The shield's edge looked different from the rest of it, reflective and silvered as opposed to the predominantly black shield body, and Roger figured that the edge must be made of an extremely dense material, one that could pierce Phase Shift. It was hardly a new idea; the Alliance had employed the technology on the GAT-X370 Raider's spherical breaker and the GAT-X252 Forbidden's scythe. Roger just hadn't been expecting it to be used _here_.

"Out of the way, kid!" someone yelled over the radio.

"Hey," Roger started, moving his mobile suit to the left somewhat, "who are you calling ki—whoa!"

A high-velocity electron beam lanced through space about three feet from the Sword Calamity and crashed against the enemy machine's shield. Waltfeld's M1A darted into the fray, moving to help Athrun flank the enemy. Roger figured he'd let the veterans work this out. Snapping his swords apart, he headed off to rejoin Sara in fighting the GuAIZ.

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Bridge**

* * *

Kira had his hands fisted tightly at his sides. There had been nothing for him to do on the bridge, and he was feeling by turns helpless and angry. They were very close to the PLANTs, but the battle was going poorly. The Sword Calamity and Ensign Velasquez's Astray had both been damaged, albeit lightly, and Athrun and Waltfeld, despite working together, were hard-pressed by the Advent Faction's new machine. Cagalli couldn't help, as she was occupied with fending off the command GuAIZ.

_It's one of those pilots,_ Kira thought. Out of the two he had met back on Azathoth, only one of them, Pryce if he remembered correctly, was going to be ready to fly soon. If he was correct, that meant that the machine out there was the "Herald" he had spoken of.

_And if that's true_, the brunette thought, _that machine is probably a Gundam._

The bridge shook from another explosion, and Kira gripped a nearby control panel for support. The _Laurasia_-class was firing at them, which meant that Captain Ramius couldn't offer much support to their mobile suits, no matter how much trouble they were in.

"Call Captain Waltfeld back," Kira said. Byron, the parasite operator, gave him an uncertain look, and then shifted his gaze to the captain. Murrue nodded.

"Captain Waltfeld, we request that you return to the ship immediately."

* * *

**Open Space**

* * *

Sara pulled back, attempting to keep her shield between her Astray and the GuAIZ's CIWS fire. She returned fire with her beam rifle, the shots splashing against the mobile suit's shield. Sara expected the enemy pilot to shoot back. Instead, the Advent Faction soldier launched the extensional arrestors, beam blades active. Sara didn't have time to react, but the sword Calamity interposed itself in between the weapons and the Orb suit, swatting the arrestors aside with its swords.

"That's not very nice," she heard Roger say over the radio.

"Well, I was never exactly Miss Congeniality," the enemy pilot responded. Sara grinned. Tuning out Roger and the enemy's dialogue, she turned her Astray to get a better look at Athrun.

Captain Waltfeld had been recalled to the ship, leaving Athrun alone to face the Advent Faction G-weapon, and it wasn't going well. Athrun couldn't go on the attack, and his attempts to defend himself were meeting with limited success. As Sara watched, the G-weapon rushed Athrun. He fired the Astray's thrusters and darted above it, but the grey and black machine twisted around to track him, firing a burst from its CIWS. Armor-piercing incendiary rounds ripped through the Orb suit's right leg and the thrusters on the limb went dead.

"Roger, Athrun-san's in trouble," Sara said quickly. "Can you keep your girlfriend under control?" The Sword Calamity crossed blades with the GuAIZ again, and Roger laughed.

"No problem," he replied. Without further ado, Sara fired her M1's thrusters, closing in on the fight between Athrun and the new enemy and locking onto it with her beam rifle.

The enemy machine reacted incredibly fast, darting to the side just as she fired, and the green beam streaked off into the vacuum harmlessly. Athrun added his own firepower, but the G-weapon evaded or blocked the shots with frightening ease. Athrun moved to flank the enemy, but that didn't work either. The black and grey suit shot up and away from the two Astrays, opening up with its rifle, and Athrun was showered with lethal green beams. The M1's shield stopped two of the shots and Athrun dodged another, but the fourth beam speared the Astray's damaged leg, blowing apart everything below the knee. Sara could hear Athrun swearing over the radio.

_This isn't working,_ she thought. _The damn thing's too fast for ranged attacks._

"Athrun-san," Sara said, "I'm not going to get anywhere using my rifle. I'm going up close." Athrun was the better melee combatant and Sara knew it, but she also knew that his machine had taken damage and was less maneuverable than hers. Against this infernal machine, they needed all the agility they could get. Athrun must have realized this too, because his reply was short and to the point.

"I'll cover you as best I can," he said. Sara drew her beam saber and rushed the enemy machine as Athrun sent several rifle blasts at it. The G-weapon evaded the particle beams, moving down and to the left, which put it right in front of Sara's Astray. Not missing a beat, the Advent Faction pilot stowed his rifle and drew a saber from behind the mobile suit's shoulder. As Sara crossed blades with the machine, the enemy pilot's voice emerged from her speakers.

"Are you sure this is wise?" he asked. The G-weapon moved to evade more beam fire from Athrun, and Sara moved with it, staying in melee range. She made a few more strikes with her weapon, but all were blocked or dodged. "Attacking a superior machine one on one is generally fruitless at best." Sara pulled back momentarily.

"It's not all about the machine," she said, eliciting a chuckle from the enemy pilot.

"Such overconfidence in your own ability," he said. "You must be a Natural."

_Just give me an opening, you arrogant prick._

After a few more seconds of circling each other, Sara saw her opening. The enemy pilot stowed his beam saber and reached back to draw the rifle. Seizing upon the opportunity, Sara fired her M1's thrusters and rushed forward at full speed, swinging the beam saber as she did.

"Got you!" she cried with no small amount of satisfaction. That'd teach that conceited moron to underestimate Natur—

Suddenly, the G-weapon's wings swung forward, pointing at her. The arrow-like tips snapped open and two segmented metal tentacles lashed out, one wrapping around the Astray's right arm, the other coiling about the mobile suit's torso.

"On the contrary, my dear," the enemy pilot's voice was tinted with amusement. "I've got _you._" Sara caught sight of Athrun's M1 moving in for a shot, but apparently so did the enemy, as it spun around, yanking the captured Astray into a position between the G-weapon and Athrun's machine. Realizing she was being used as a human shield, Sara wrestled with the controls, but couldn't break free.

_Alright,_ she thought. _My arm's immobilized, so I can't shoot him, but maybe I can…what?_ A small alarm was sounding, drawing Sara's attention to the Astray's controls. The power reading for her machine was dropping at a frightening rate. While it had been in the yellow zone, near optimum levels, before the enemy machine had grabbed her, it was now in the white area. As Sara watched, the level decreased further, dropping into the red zone. As the Astray reached critically low power levels, the beam saber shrank down and disappeared, the plasma blade retreating into the mobile suit's system as its containing magnetic field began to fail. Sara began to panic, wrenching at the hand levers, and managed to get her M1 to thrash around for a short while. After only a few seconds, however, the power dropped to almost nothing and the Astray stopped moving. The thrusters and limb actuators ceased functioning, immobilizing the suit. The com link and sensors, however, ran on minimal power, so the Orb pilot could see the pulses of light moving down the tentacles and flowing into the G-weapon, and she could hear what her enemy said next.

"The Stygia system pulls electricity directly from other mobile suits and feeds it into the Herald's battery." The tentacles withdrew into the wings; the tips snapped shut and the wings swung back into their normal position over the mobile suit's shoulders. "It has the added benefit of immobilizing enemy mobile suits, as you've probably noticed." Sara slammed her fists down on the control panel in front of her, unable to do anything as the G-weapon flashed towards Athrun again.

* * *

Roger whipped the Schwert Gewehrs toward the GuAIZ again. The enemy mobile suit took the blows on its shield and pushed away, firing its beam rifle.

_Well,_ Roger thought with a grin, _two can play at this game._ Turning one of the swords around, he pointed it at the enemy. While the standard Schwert Gewehr used magnetically contained plasma for a blade, the Sword Calamity's weapons used a cycled electron beam instead. The beam was accelerated up through the inside of the blade, redirected at the tip and sent out as a beam edge. When it reached the hilt, it was normally redirected again and sent back up for another round of acceleration.

_But if I push this button…_

The pommel of the sword opened up and the electron beam launched out, slamming against the GuAIZ's shield and no doubt giving the pilot a nasty surprise. Roger laughed as he heard his opponent swearing over the com link. He spun the Schwert Gewehr back into its normal orientation, and the emerald beam edge reappeared, thin at first but strengthening as it cycled back up to speed.

"You Naturals think you're so clever for coming up with your own mobile suits," the enemy pilot said. "It would be kind of cute if you weren't using that technology to menace Coordinators." Roger snorted in disgust at the last bit.

"You look down on Naturals the way you do and yet you still have the balls to blame everything on _us?_" he asked, incredulous. "You know, in the Earth Forces we have a word for Coordinators who act like you." There was a moment of silence before the enemy responded.

"Are you calling me a space monster?" she asked. Her tone had lost all of its earlier mocking humor and now held a sense of outrage.

"If the shoe fits…" Roger trailed off, hoping that Athrun hadn't heard that. The insinuation had the intended effect, and the GuAIZ came straight at him, firing its beam rifle. Roger gritted his teeth, barely blocking the attack, and responded with another Scylla blast. The Advent Faction mobile suit took the ion beam on its shield and backed off somewhat.

_Okay, maybe it __**didn't**__ have the intended effect. I got her angry, but she doesn't seem to have gotten any sloppier._

During the brief pause, Roger saw that his opponent and he had traveled quite a distance from the _Archangel_, and were now very near where Athrun and the enemy G-weapon were fighting. Floating nearby was an M1 Astray, completely intact but apparently lifeless.

"Roger!" Sara's voice emerged from the Sword Calamity's cockpit speakers.

"Are you okay?" he responded, slashing at his enemy again.

"I'm okay," Sara replied. "I just can't move and I can't do anything to defend myself." The Orb pilot's voice was tense and indicated clearly how much her current state was unnerving her.

"Just hang in there," Roger said in what he hoped was a reassuring tone. "Try to stay calm."

"Okay," Sara answered, her breath shuddering slightly. Roger lunged at the GuAIZ again, but this time it backed off quite a bit, moving to the right.

"What the hell are you—," Roger started, but stopped when he saw that the Advent Faction mobile suit had positioned itself right next to Sara's Astray. He moved to fire the Scylla, but realized that a blast from the ion cannon might hit the Astray as well.

"What's the matter?" the enemy pilot asked; her tone of mocking humor had returned. "Cat got your tongue?"

"Roger, shoot her," Sara said. Her voice was audible to more than one person, however, and the GuAIZ turned slightly, facing more toward the M1 and causing Sara to gasp. This prompted a cruel laugh from the Advent Faction pilot.

"Aw, is your toy broken?" she taunted. Roger tensed as he saw the GuAIZ's beam claws extend.

"No…" Sara said softly. Roger gritted his teeth.

"Don't you dare," he said. His only answer was a soft chuckle.

"Go to Hell, Natural," the enemy said, drawing back, and then plunging the beam claws into the Astray's cockpit.

The communications system had been left on, allowing anyone listening to hear, with crystal clarity, Sara's agonized screams as the hot plasma blades burned her to ash. There was a moment of horrified stillness as the GuAIZ withdrew its blades from the dead M1 and kicked it away. In his cockpit, Roger too was completely quiet. There was no witty retort; not even an expletive to throw at his enemy, not after this. Finally, he said one thing into the radio.

"I'm going to kill you."

Without any further ado, Roger snapped the Sword Calamity's blades together and fired his thrusters at full power, rushing at the GuAIZ. The Advent Faction pilot brought up her shield, but Roger didn't stop, instead swinging the combined weapon with all of his mobile suit's power. The increased mass and the stronger blade breached the shield's protective magnetic field, and the sword cut the defensive item in half, taking some of the GuAIZ's left arm with it. As the enemy pilot frantically backed away, Roger pulled on the controls. The Sword Calamity held its blade one-handed, reaching up with the other to grab one of the Midas Messers from its shoulder mount. Snapping the beam boomerang around once to extend its plasma blade, Roger sent it flying at the GuAIZ. The olive-colored mobile suit twisted as best it could to get out of the way, but the boomerang still connected, slicing its head off. Roger caught the weapon as it returned, spreading the Sword Calamity's arms slightly and firing the Scylla.

The ion beam had nearly reached its target when the cannon-wielding GuAIZ intervened, taking the blast on its shield. Looking back, Roger remembered that Maria's Astray had taken damage earlier, and must have retreated, leaving one of the Advent Faction soldiers free. Gritting his teeth, Roger snapped the Schwert Gewehrs apart and charged his enemy with both weapons.

* * *

Athrun heard the scream and saw the disabled Astray tossed away, its cockpit a glowing red wound, followed by Roger attacking Sara's killer with a level of speed and, truth be told, ferocity that Athrun had never seen out of him before. Shifting his attention back to the enemy G-weapon, he raised his M1's beam saber.

"This ends now," he said, flooring the thrust and swerving around behind the black and grey machine. Athrun kicked the G-weapon with his machine's remaining leg to knock it off guard, and then struck with his saber. It was an attack he'd used before, and it was devilishly hard to counter.

This time, however, it didn't work.

The Advent Faction G-weapon fired its foot- and wing-mounted thrusters, righted itself, spun and blocked Athrun's attack with its own beam saber in the blink of an eye. For a moment, Athrun couldn't even react. He hadn't seen anyone other than Kira do something like that.

"As you were saying," Pryce stated calmly, "this has been fun, but I think it's time we wrapped this up." With that, the G-weapon struck with its left arm, the razor-edged shield slicing the Astray's sword arm off just above the elbow. Athrun tried to back away, but the G-weapon streaked around behind him, and CIWS fire shredded the M1's flight unit thrusters. Athrun turned just in time to see the enemy mobile suit lash out with its beam saber, taking the Astray's head off.

The cockpit screens went from clear pictures to static, and then the entire CIS imploded. The screens shattered as the deadly shield tore a massive gouge in the cockpit, allowing Athrun to see the G-weapon staring in at him.

"Well," Pryce said. The M1's cockpit had decompressed and no sound from the cockpit speakers would reach Athrun, but the backup headset in his helmet was still working. "This is the skill of the famous Athrun Zala? I must admit, I'm a little disappointed." The dark machine drew back and pointed its beam saber directly at Athrun, and the Orb pilot felt his blood run cold. "Goodbye."

Before the Advent Faction ace could deliver the killing blow, however, he was forced to dive away as a high-power electron beam streaked past. As the damaged M1 slowly drifted to face where the shot had come from, Athrun caught sight of Captain Waltfeld's M1A. The voice that became audible in Athrun's headset, however, was not the one he had been expecting.

"Why can't you people just leave us alone?" Kira Yamato said from the Orb suit's cockpit.

* * *

"I'm afraid we can't do that," Pryce replied. "There are still a few more things we need to learn from you." The Gundam, referred to as the Herald if Kira's memory served him, flashed towards him. The Orb pilot responded by aiming the sniper beam rifle and firing. He hadn't taken the time to acquire a lock, however, going for speed instead of pinpoint accuracy. The Herald simply spun out of the way. The enemy machine was very close now, so Kira didn't waste the time to try and aim another shot. Instead, he threw the electron rifle at the Herald, reached back and drew the Type 70 beam saber mounted behind the M1A's shoulder. The enemy machine sliced the rifle in half and kept coming, its saber crashing against Kira's.

"Athrun, get back to the ship!" Kira said, pushing the Herald back and attacking with his saber.

"I can't get back," Athrun replied. "My Astray is totaled; I'm going to need someone to get me." Kira stole a glance at the other _Archangel_ mobile suits. Maria had been forced to return to the ship, leaving Kenji as the only remaining M1 pilot. He was locked in a vicious melee with one of the GuAIZs. Cagalli was attempting to get out to Athrun, but she was being hemmed in by two other GuAIZs, one of which was the command unit. Roger's Sword Calamity, meanwhile, was engaging the canon-wielding mobile suit while the last GuAIZ, heavily damaged, retreated to the waiting _Laurasia_-class.

_Damn it!_ No one was free to help, which meant Kira would have to try and repel the enemy before taking Athrun's M1 back in. He took another swing with the M1A's saber, which the Herald dodged. The follow-up attack was blocked by the Gundam's shield. It left Kira wide open to a killing strike.

That killing strike, however, never arrived. As Kira had expected, the Herald avoided attacking the M1A's cockpit, opting instead for a saber attack on the Orb suit's head, which Kira dodged.

"What's the matter?" Kira asked. "You're not willing to damage your precious sample?" He lashed out with his saber again. The Herald drew back, its wings swiveling forward and pointing at Kira. This didn't stop the Orb pilot, however. "I won't let you do that!" he cried, diving forward and attacking. His beam saber flashed out and cut half of the right wing off.

"That may not work," Pryce replied, "but there are many ways to disable a mobile suit." He blocked Kira's next attack with his shield and countered with his own saber, slashing upward and cutting the left arm off of the M1A at the shoulder. The Advent Faction pilot followed up with a burst from his CIWS, which Kira dodged.

Before the battle could go any further, however, a hypervelocity projectile streaked into view and slammed into the Herald. The Gundam's Phase Shift protected it, but it was still knocked back as the projectile fragmented and exploded from the sudden stop.

"Get out of our territory, you bastards!" The transmission had come from a blue and grey mobile suit, between seventeen and eighteen meters tall and covered in thick armor. A large-barreled railgun was mounted on its right shoulder, and a box on its left shoulder opened to reveal five missile tubes. Powerful thrusters were mounted on the mobile suit's back and legs, its right hand held a beam rifle, and a large blue shield was mounted on its left arm.

Kira hadn't seen it in almost a year, but there was no mistaking the GAT-X102 Duel.

True to form, the Duel was followed closely by the GAT-X103 Buster. The broad-shouldered mobile suit, beige and green with faded red trim, opened its twin shoulder-mounted missile launchers and loosed a dozen of the explosive projectiles, driving off the two GuAIZs attacking Cagalli. Behind the Buster was what looked like a blue CGUE with two shoulder-mounted beam cannons, along with nine other mobile suits and two _Nazca_-class destroyers. As the ZAFT forces closed in, the Advent Faction troops began to withdraw.

"Well, it looks like you and I won't have the chance to finish this," Pryce stated evenly. "Rest assured, however, that you _will_ see us again." The Herald turned and darted away, heading back to the enemy _Laurasia_-class.

* * *

The cannon-wielding GuAIZ did an about face and retreated as the area was suddenly shot through with beam fire and hypervelocity projectiles. Roger paused as the barrage stopped, shivering slightly with the aftereffects of his adrenaline, until new blips on his CIS alerted him to the approach of a trio of new mobile suits. Turning to look, he nearly mistook them for GuAIZs, and raised his anti-ship swords briefly. However, these were different machines. While nearly identical to the GuAIZ and wielding the same beam rifles, these new mobile suits were grey in color, their shields were more forward-pointed and the extensional arrestors had been replaced with folding railguns. There also might have been some modifications to the thruster array, although Roger couldn't be sure from this angle.

"It looked like you needed a hand," the pilot of one of the new mobile suits said. "Commander Joule figured we'd come out and personally welcome you guys to the PLANTs."

"Thanks," Roger replied.

"No problem," the ZAFT pilot replied. "Always glad to help out with a victory."

"Victory?" Roger figured that he sounded retarded, but he couldn't help it.

"Those guys were chasing you and they were sent back home with their tails between their legs. We won." Roger knew the truth of the ZAFT pilot's words, but he couldn't help thinking of the Astray pilot who wouldn't be going home to her boyfriend.

"Yeah," he finally said, albeit halfheartedly. "We win."

* * *

**Author's Note: **It's finally here! I'm sorry it took me so long to get this to you, but I was taking Final Exams, so writing had to be delayed for a while. Hopefully this makes up for it.

I had always planned on killing off Sara, but it became significantly less fun as I developed her character more. In the end, I still went with it for several reasons. I wanted to show that the Advent Faction is determined and skilled, and that there is a price to be paid for going up against them. The scene also gave Lia an extra villainous moment, and Roger is going to be all the more determined to kill her after this. Sara's death will also affect her boyfriend, Hiro, although I won't reveal exactly how at this point.

As to the introduction of the Herald, I hope no one thought I God-modded him. To lay it out clearly, Pryce is nearly equal to Athrun at this point (Athrun is better, but the margin is razor-thin). Therefore, if Pryce is in the superior machine (and he is) he's going to win. Against Kira, Pryce is still in the better machine, but the two fight to more of a draw (the Herald takes some damage; the M1A takes some damage). Hopefully that clears things up a little bit.

Next Chapter: the _Archangel_ crew spends some time in the PLANTs, Roger makes a new acquaintance and some disturbing new problems arise.


	9. Calm

Disclaimer: I don't own _Gundam SEED_ or any of its characters. Ensign Roger Doolittle, Commander Roland Harris, Security Officer Erin Stroud, Flight Commander Javier Sabato, Jason Pryce, Richard Kane and Dr. Elizabeth Sandford are my own creations.

Chapter 9: Calm

* * *

**September 27, CE 72, Lagrange Point 5, Martius 4**

* * *

The PLANTs were very different from Heliopolis, Flay decided as she stared out of the elevator. While there was the obvious difference in geometry, as Heliopolis had been cylindrical and the PLANTs were hourglass-shaped, what really struck her was how much unsettled space existed in these colonies. The elevator was traveling down the central shaft, allowing an unobstructed view of the massive flat area below. While a great landmass occupied the center of the area, the earth was interspersed with rivers and lakes, complete with small islands in them. It even seemed that a vast sea stretched away in all directions, although Flay imagined this to be some sort of optical illusion. They were, after all, in a contained space.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Turning, Flay found Lacus standing beside her, admiring the view.

"Yeah," she replied. "It is." Flay had never been to the PLANTs before, although she had heard Athrun talk about them quite a bit. The young Coordinator's descriptions, however, were nothing compared to the reality of the space colonies.

"It seems like kind of a waste of space, though," Roger said, taking a step closer to the windows. "I mean, if they want people to live in space, is it really a good idea to leave so much of the colony empty like this?" Lacus smiled and shook her head.

"A lot of the colony is made to be wild deliberately," she said. "Entire generations spend their whole lives in here, so they need it to feel as Earth-like as possible. That involves a certain amount of wilderness as well as cities." Roger thought, and then nodded slightly, acknowledging the logic. There was a moment of silence as all simply watched the landscape outside. Flay saw Athrun smile and laugh softly.

"It's amazing," he said, "but being in here, it's easy to forget what's going on outside." Flay glanced back at Roger and saw him look away for a moment. While she hadn't known the Astray pilot they'd lost just outside the PLANTs, Flay knew that Roger had been friends with her. He was handling it very well, but it was obviously still upsetting for him. Wanting to give him something else to think about, the redhead broke the silence.

"Well, it will be nice to get some time off," she said. It wasn't merely a distraction for Roger; she genuinely was looking forward to spending time with Kira and the others. The brunette himself had taken another elevator down to the habitation area, along with his sister and Captain Waltfeld.

"Yeah, it will," Roger said, finally smiling, "although I do have one more errand to run." Flay looked at him questioningly, as did Athrun. "I have to contact my superiors for a debriefing. The Alliance has to know that the Advent Faction is a very real threat to Naturals."

"And to anyone who stands in their way," Athrun added. "They're not terribly fond of me, if you remember." Roger chuckled.

"Right," he said, "because you 'betrayed' ZAFT." Athrun nodded.

"Speaking of ZAFT," Lacus said, "Martius is the center of its aerospace program. The _Archangel_'s mechanics are working with some of our best minds on repairing your ship. They must be honored."

* * *

"Honored" was about the last thing Kojiro Murdoch was feeling right now.

The _Archangel_ was currently encased in one of the docking and repair frames arrayed around the ZAFT military station. Eager to see the famous ship, several of ZAFT's best and brightest had volunteered to help with repairs.

At the moment, those same best and brightest were volunteering suggestions on how the Orb warship could be "improved."

"You see," one of them said, gesturing along the length of the ship. "If we just removed this superfluous capacitor bank here, we could cut down on the overall mass and increase the ship's acceleration by ten percent, on par with that of a _Nazca_-class."

"You can't do that!" Murdoch said. If it weren't for the space suit he was wearing for working on the _Archangel_'s outer hull, he probably would have been pulling his hair out by now. "That 'superfluous' capacitor is what lets the portside Valiant fire!" The ZAFT engineer waved a hand dismissively.

"This ship already has more than enough weapons," he said. "What it really needs is to be as light as possible."

"Would you people stop trying to ZAFT-ify my ship!" Murdoch exploded. After receiving a surprised look from the engineer, he reined in his frustration and attempted a calmer response. "Look, if you want to work these design ideas into a ZAFT ship, then do it. This vessel, however, is property of the Orb Navy. We just want it back in working order." The ZAFT tech just shrugged.

"Alright," he said, "but don't complain to me when our new battleship class outperforms you." Murdoch rolled his eyes.

"I won't," he said. "Besides, you're going to need everything you've got to be ready for what's coming." The ZAFT engineer's light purple eyes acquired a hint of worry.

"Is it really that bad?" he asked. "I mean, I know they gave you guys trouble, but you're just one ship. If we have the numerical advantage, a splinter faction shouldn't be too hard to handle." Murdoch hesitated for a moment before answering.

"I hope you're right."

* * *

**Space station Azathoth**

* * *

"What exactly do you mean by 'our supplies won't be arriving'?" Elizabeth Sanford asked, arching a brow. The young soldier who'd brought her the message hesitated.

"Well," he said, "the problem is due to pirate activity."

"I was under the impression that we _owned_ the pirates," Sanford replied with a hint of irritation. Her work had been set back far enough by Orb's interference, and having common thugs attacking their supply shipments certainly didn't help.

"We don't own these pirates…" the young man said.

"What exactly are you playing at?" the scientist asked. Before the soldier could answer, however, Sanford figured it out herself, and she sighed with irritation. "The Vanguard?" The soldier nodded, wincing, just as a nearby door opened and Sabato walked into the infusion room. The former ZAFT officer stopped, sensing the mood in the room.

"What's going on?" he asked. Sanford shrugged.

"It seems our latest shipment was hit by the Crossbone Vanguard," she said. Sabato looked at the soldier, who nodded.

"Vessels bearing the crest of the Vanguard fell on the supply ship just as it reached turnover and…well, you know their reputation," he clarified. "The ship was sent drifting into a holding pattern outside of L3. No one was killed, but all of the equipment was taken."

"Was this a targeted attack or just their usual random raids?" Sabato asked thoughtfully. Sanford resisted rolling her eyes. By now, it didn't matter if the attack had been random or not.

"We think it was random, Sir, but it won't be now," the young soldier said, echoing Sanford's thoughts. "Most people couldn't begin to comprehend what we would do with that kind of cargo, but the Vanguard aren't most people."

"Brown especially," Sanford added. "He, more than anyone else, may reasonably be expected to deduce what we're up to. He's also likely to take exception to it, given his nature, so we can probably expect interference from the Vanguard in the future." Sabato shrugged.

"Couldn't that work in our favor, though?" he asked. "If we engaged and captured them, you could surely use Brown's nanotechnology to further your research. If we do that, we may not even need to recapture Yamato." Sanford cocked her head slightly.

"At what point did I suggest that I merely wanted to create super-soldiers?" she asked. "What I'm doing is far more important than that, and it's going to require a lot more than micro-machines." Sabato's expression darkened, and he took a step closer to the red-eyed woman.

"Remember our deal," he said. "I deliver Yamato to you, and you give me my army." Sanford's expression remained neutral, but inwardly she rolled her eyes. For all his skill as a military commander, Javier Sabato was annoyingly shortsighted, far too focused on his immediate goals.

"Indeed," she said. "The control systems for your new mobile suits are coming along smoothly. I've linked them to the simulators you provided, so assuming that the machines are up to the level of their simulations…" Sabato nodded.

"Absolutely," he said. "We have completed two-hundred-thirty units and expect to have the remaining twenty finished within a week. My manufacturing teams assure me that the mobile suits meet their specifications in all areas."

"Good," Sanford replied. "Now, as for Brown, I'd imagine we can at least keep him busy?" Sabato nodded.

"I'll relay new turnover coordinates to our suppliers and have the transports change their routes. The escort ships can be scrapped as well, since they'll only slow things down and won't help out in an actual Vanguard attack."

"Very well," Sanford replied. "Now, about Kira Yamato…"

"Surely you're not suggesting that we attack the PLANTs," Sabato said incredulously. Sanford just shook her head.

"No," she replied. "In fact, if we hadn't used the station's thrusters to move it, the PLANTs would no doubt be attacking _us_ right now. As for the boy, he will return to us. It should take just over one week." Sabato's brow furrowed.

"Why would he come back?" Sanford gave one of her signature cold smiles.

"I took out a little insurance," she said. "I'll explain in due time, so go about your business. I have the reacquisition of Yamato under control."

* * *

**Martius 4**

* * *

Roger sighed. The habitation area of a PLANT was small, at least compared to many cities on Earth, so why was it so ridiculously hard to _find_ anything here? Before doing anything else, he needed to reach Arzachel and let High Command know what was going on out here. In order to do that, he'd have to reach the colony's communications center.

_Of course, it would help if the communications center was actually__** on the map.**_

"What are you doing here?" Roger started at the voice, and lowered the map from its position in front of his face. He had wandered into a commons of sorts: an open area with a fairly appealing look. The ground was covered with white tiles of some sort, and a fountain graced the center of the area. The whole place was dressed with greenery.

There was a group positioned by the fountain. Four young men and a blonde girl, all in their late teens, eyed Roger. The voice that had interrupted him had been female, which meant the blonde.

"I'm looking for the communications center for this colony," he said by way of explanation. "It just doesn't seem to be on the map." The blonde rose from her seat on the edge of the fountain and approached Roger.

"No," she said, reaching arm's length and fixing Roger with bright pink eyes. "I meant what's a piece of Earth slime doing here in the PLANTs?" Apparently, she was the leader of this little band, since the four young men moved closer as well, following her lead.

"Here to make sure Coordinators can't live in peace?" One of the guys said. Since he was on official business, Roger was wearing his OMNI Enforcer uniform, and it seemed they weren't pleased with that.

"You apes just have to persecute anybody different from yourselves," another one added. The blonde smiled, and Roger barely managed to suppress a grimace.

"Look," he said, "if you have something against Naturals…" The blonde snorted derisively.

"Don't talk like we're being biased, Goebbels," she spat. This time, Roger didn't suppress his frown.

"You're going to compare me to a _Nazi?_" the Alliance soldier asked incredulously. The blonde shrugged.

"Nazis, Earth Alliance soldiers, you're all soulless bastards."

"You might want to have a little more respect for someone wearing the uniform," he said firmly, which prompted a laugh.

"Goebbels, that only applies when your uniform stands for something other than genocide and bigotry." Roger wouldn't have minded decking the girl at that point, but the fact was that he was an unofficial representative of the Atlantic Federation here, and he had to act accordingly.

_Not to mention how the media would handle any kind of scuffle,_ he thought. _I can see the headline now: "Alliance Soldier Violently Assaults PLANT Civilians!"_ As luck would have it, the situation didn't progress any further.

"Ensign Doolittle?" a voice called from behind, and Roger turned to see an older man in a green ZAFT uniform standing at the entrance to the courtyard. The new arrival was somewhere in his forties, with a thin build, blue eyes and brown hair.

"Yes?" Roger replied, perhaps with a bit more hostility than he intended.

"I'm Erin Stroud, Chief Security Officer for this PLANT," the newcomer replied. "Captain Ramius informed us that there was an Earth Forces soldier searching for our communications center, and I felt it would be easier for everyone involved if I simply escorted you there." Roger was so relieved at not having to deal with the courtyard gang anymore that he almost laughed.

"Yeah," he said. "That would be great." He turned back to the five courtyard punks. "I'm terribly sorry, but Goebbels has to go now; we'll have to continue this discussion later. Auf wiedersehen!" Roger saluted sharply and goose-stepped out of the courtyard. The ZAFT security officer, Erin, had a puzzled look on his face as he led Roger to his car.

"I take it your exchange with our local activists was unpleasant," he said as the vehicle started moving. Roger laughed.

"Yeah, you could say that," he replied. Erin smiled slightly.

"It's stunning how disrespectful 'peace' activists can be," he said, "although you can't blame them for their viewpoints." Roger shifted uncomfortably at that.

"Well, I can understand them not liking the Alliance, but seriously…Nazi comparisons?" Erin, or perhaps Roger should think of him as "Officer Stroud" now, shrugged.

"Your nation waged a war with the specific intent of exterminating my people," he said. "My daughter turned ten last month, and she wouldn't have lived to see that birthday if your country had succeeded in destroying the PLANTs one year ago."

_Out of the frying pan and into the God-damned fire,_ Roger thought. Now, instead of thugs insulting him, he had an intellectual doing it.

"Yeah, and I happen to have two parents who wouldn't still be alive if _your_ country had succeeded in burning the Earth," the Earth Forces soldier said. Watching Stroud wince, Roger decided this kind of thing wouldn't do any good. "Look, just because our government was taken over by terrorists doesn't mean we're _all_ like that." Stroud raised his hands and shook his head quickly.

"No, no, I wouldn't make such a drastic generalization," he said. "I'm only saying that your government, not you personally but your government, has a history of officially sanctioned atrocities and human rights violations, from prohibiting the PLANTs from growing our own food, to the Mandelbrot incident, the Battle of JOSH-A and the Second Battle of Jachin Due, and that's leaving out recently declassified projects like the Combat Coordinator Program. Aside from Zala, the government of the PLANTs has been relatively innocent. These aren't the opinions of a ZAFT soldier, they are historical fact." Roger pursed his lips and did his best to calm himself before replying.

"That's true," he admitted, "but as I recall, ZAFT isn't exactly as pure as the driven snow." Stroud pulled the car to a stop in front of an entrance to the massive complex of elevators that ran up the colony's central shaft. Roger and he exited the vehicle and walked through a sliding door and into a crowded lobby area. From there, Stroud picked out a specific elevator they needed to use, and the two soldiers stepped into it and waited as it began its long trek to the PLANT's axis of rotation. After a few minutes, Stroud spoke again.

"I'm sorry if I seemed overly accusatory," he said. "Just because I criticize your government doesn't mean I have anything against you personally." After a moment's hesitation, Roger sighed and shrugged.

"Can't be helped," he said. "You'd hardly be getting a warm welcome on Earth." This drew a wry chuckle from Stroud. Silence followed. Their opinions weren't going to match any time soon, so the unspoken "agree to disagree" viewpoint was probably a good place to stop the conversation.

Ten minutes later, the elevator arrived at the center of the PLANT, and Stroud led Roger down a series of unassuming, grey metal hallways, stopping at a door labeled "Central Communications Hub." The door opened into a large room dominated by banks of computer consoles, manned by personnel in ZAFT green. Behind the console banks was a large set of double doors that read "Server Room."

"You have another room for more computers?" Roger asked. Stroud nodded.

"The vast majority of the transmissions we get aren't handled here," he said. "Instead, they're forwarded to their destinations somewhere in the habitation cones. The servers manage and route those transmissions. At any rate, priority communications, like government ones, are done from the consoles in this room. You'll want to contact your superiors from in here." After directing Roger to an empty seat, Stroud pushed off and floated a distance away to give the Alliance soldier some privacy, although he didn't leave the room.

Roger pulled a small card from his pocket, slipped it into a slot on the console in front of him and dialed the number he had been assigned before starting the mission. Atlantic Federation high command didn't want just anyone catching wind of what was going on, and the card Roger had used contained programming for encrypting the message, keeping civilians or the press from listening in. After a moment, the static on the screen disappeared, replaced with the face of Roger's commanding officer, Captain Roland Harris.

"Ensign Roger Doolittle, reporting, Sir," Roger said, saluting. The PLANTs and the Moon were over 384,000 kilometers from each other, so there was a time delay of a little over a second before Roger's salute was visible to Harris. About two and a half seconds after Roger saluted, the Harris on the screen in front of him chuckled.

"You're acting rather formal today," the older man said. Roger shrugged and threw a glance at the ZAFT officers in the room, although Harris wouldn't be able to see them.

"I can't be too friendly in front of ZAFT," he said. Harris was right, of course. Roger wasn't normally too formal with him. He valued the man as a friend and as a mentor, and he quite literally owed Harris his life.

The captain himself was in his early sixties, but had aged well; the wrinkles on his face portrayed age without suggesting infirmity. His short beard and the mustache that merged with it were white, and Roger knew the hair under his beret was the same color.

"Well, then, Ensign Doolittle," Harris said, "what is your analysis of the threat posed by the kidnapping group?" Roger shook his head and sighed.

"I'd say it's a high-level threat, Sir," he said. "The radicals call themselves the Advent Faction and appear to be primarily ZAFT deserters, fanatically devoted to the ideals of Patrick Zala. They have at least three _Laurasia_-class frigates and at least one _Nazca_-class destroyer. They have access to black market Earth Forces technology as well as plenty of ZAFT machines. I saw them using GINNs and some CGUEs, but they've got plenty of GuAIZs as well. What's more, they seem to be capable of building G-weapons." On the screen, Harris's brows rose.

"How many do they have?" the older officer asked.

"Hard to be sure," Roger answered. "I've seen one, but there could be more." Captain Harris nodded solemnly.

"Very well," he said. "Continue your mission for now and find out everything you can about this group. I'll pass your information on to Command."

"Aye, Sir," Roger said. "Doolittle out."

* * *

**September 28, CE 72**

* * *

"What was it you called this group?" Shiho asked, writing on a notepad as she listened to Kira.

"They called themselves the Advent Faction," the boy replied. They were standing outside of a hangar in one of several ZAFT military facilities in the habitation area. Athrun and Dearka were inside the hangar, taking a look at something, although Kira didn't know exactly what. "I didn't meet many of them, but the person who was around me the most was a scientist. She identified herself as Elizabeth Sanford, and there were several soldiers: Kane, I think his first name was Richard, and a Jason Pryce." Shiho went pale at Kane's name. "You know who he is?" Kira asked. The redcoat nodded.

"Richard Kane was a serial killer in Aprilius," she said. "He killed women mostly; killed them with a knife, over the course of about an hour." She shuddered, and Kira felt a distinct skin-crawling sensation at how close he had been to the man. "We caught him eventually, but someone broke him out of prison about six months ago." Kira nodded.

"I guess we know who did it now," he said. Shiho nodded and went back to her notepad.

"What did you say the other soldier's name was?" she asked.

"Jason Pryce," Kira replied, "and there was another one that Sanford mentioned. I don't remember the name, but it ended in '-ato,' almost like 'Mr. Roboto' as weird as that sounds." Shiho's brow furrowed.

"Was it 'Sabato'?" Kira nodded.

"That's it," he said. Shiho gave a nod of her own.

"You're talking about the Missing Squadron," she said. "After the Second Battle of Jachin Due, when ZAFT was figuring out who we had left, there was a squadron of five ships that we couldn't account for. None of the debris could be positively matched to their ships, so we couldn't call them KIA. The overall commander was one Javier Sabato. The guy was known to be extremely anti-Natural and was a passionate supporter of Patrick Zala. It fits with that decal your friends reported on that command GuAIZ."

"Yeah," Kira said thoughtfully. "Athrun said it was a snake swallowing its own tail." Shiho nodded.

"That's a symbol of Uroboros," she said. "It has a lot of psychological and symbolic meanings, but it's also the name of the operation ZAFT launched when we dropped the N-Jammers on the Earth. A commander…" she clicked the pad's touch screen a few times and scrolled down "…Alexander Stanton, who belonged to the Missing Squadron, decorated his mobile suit with the Uroboros symbol in memory of our first real strike against Earth. Anyway, I think Jason Pryce was a ZAFT redcoat in the same squadron, although I can't say for sure off the top of my head." Kira nodded.

"Do you know anything about Sanford?" he asked.

"No," Shiho replied. "I'll pass the information along and see if someone else knows who she is."

"Alright," Kira said. "I'm going to go see what Athrun is doing in there." Shiho nodded and walked away. Kira walked in through the large hangar doors and proceeded forward until he found Athrun and Dearka. The building's walls were lined with resting mobile suits, and Dearka was pointing to several of them.

"We took out the extensional arrestors and replaced them with the Porcus IX folding railguns, and upped the efficiency on the thrusters, which allowed us to trim them down a little and not lose speed. We also tweaked the shield a bit. It's still a composite, but the MA-MV05 has one beam saber, while the MA-MV03 had the two beam claws."

"So it's still basically a GuAIZ," Athrun replied. Dearka nodded.

"Pretty much," he said. "The model number is ZGMF-601R and we flat-out _call_ it a 'GuAIZ R'."

"What's the R for?" Kira asked. Dearka shrugged.

"I don't know," he said.

"I was just curious about what ZAFT has been doing mobile suit-wise since I left," Athrun said by way of explanation.

"Oh, speaking of that," Dearka said, "take a look at this." The redcoat led Kira and Athrun to the very back of the hangar, where a large grey mobile suit stood.

"A Gundam?" Kira asked. Dearka seemed a little puzzled by the term, but turned back to the machine instead of asking further.

"This is the ZGMF-X18 Diligence," he said. "It's a new G-weapon that's an attempt at a true transforming machine. No other new technology, just the best of what we have now." The mobile suit stood over eighteen meters tall, and was crowned with the V-fin characteristic of Gundams. Wings were visible on its back, and the barrel of some spinal mount weapon projected upwards from behind its head. The Diligence held a beam rifle in one hand, and a shield similar to that of the GuAIZ Rs was mounted on its other arm.

"It's certainly impressive," Athrun said. "What's the power source?"

"I'm not sure if it was ever meant to be nuclear, but it isn't now," Dearka replied. "The Junius Treaty took that option off the table."

"Is it going to be fielded?" Kira asked. Dearka shrugged.

"I don't know. I think it's more of a testbed, although it would probably do pretty well if you took it into combat."

"Dearka!" All three Coordinators turned to see Yzak entering the hangar.

"What's up?" the blonde responded.

"The reconnaissance GINNs we sent after the terrorists just reentered communication range."

* * *

"Yeah, and you have a nice day too," Roger said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He'd just finished his second video conference with Captain Harris, and instead of Stroud, he'd had some anonymous ZAFT soldiers who hadn't been shy about expressing their distaste for him. So now, as he made his way through the ZAFT complex to meet up with Kira and Athrun, he was not in the best of moods. According to Captain Harris, a Special Forces team would be en route from Arzachel in a few days, along with a small Eurasian force, but that really wasn't helping him right now.

_I swear, if one more self-righteous ZAFT elitist decides to tell me how evil my country is, this war is going to start all over again, right here, right n—_

And Roger collided with someone as he turned the next corner, the impact knocking both of them to the ground. As he pulled himself to a sitting position, he saw that he had run into a young man in a variant of the ZAFT green uniform, albeit lacking any markings and in pastel colors, no more than fifteen years old, with black hair that hung forward, almost down to his crimson eyes.

"Sorry," the boy said, standing up.

"It's fine," Roger said, perhaps a little too harshly. He moved to stand himself, before seeing a hand stretched out to help him up. Taking it, he found that it was attached to an incredibly beautiful young girl, about the same age as the boy. She was wearing a pink version of the boy's pastel uniform, and had neck length red hair and deep blue eyes. After she helped him to his feet, Roger just stared at her for a second, prompting the boy to roll his eyes.

"I'll leave you two alone, then," he said, walking off. The girl made an irritated face.

"Shinn!" she said, and then turned back to Roger, shaking her head. "Sorry about that. I'm Lunamaria, but my friends just call me Luna. What's your name?" Something about the inquisitive smile that accompanied that question made Roger grin too.

"I'm…er…I'm…" He fumbled a couple times, causing her eyebrows to rise and her smile to turn mischievous.

"Are you always this talkative?" she asked.

"Erm…God, I used to know this…Roger! I'm Roger Doolittle." Luna laughed at this.

"Well, it's nice to meet you," she said. "I'm guessing by the uniform that you're not from around here." Roger chuckled and shook his head.

"No, I'm not," he said. "You know the Orb ship that's docked here?"

"Yeah," Luna said, some excitement creeping into her voice, "the famous one from the war, right?"

"I'm helping them out on their current mission," Roger answered.

"Cool," Luna replied, before her expression turned a bit more embarrassed. "I'm still in training."

"Nothing wrong with that," Roger said supportively. "It's a necessary thing. So, I know this is kind of off-topic, but are you doing anything later?"

* * *

"What?" Yzak asked. "Are you sure they were at the coordinates we specified?"

"Absolutely, Commander Joule," Shiho replied. "There was evidence of recent activity, though. Some of the larger pieces of debris appeared to have had pieces cut out of them, almost like small-scale mining."

"But the space station isn't there?" Athrun joined in.

"According to the pilots, it was gone," the girl replied. Kira shook his head in confusion.

"How do you move an entire space station?" Dearka asked.

"Well," Kira said, "I don't know about the PLANTs, but Heliopolis and other colonies like it had huge thrusters mounted on the outer hull. The whole colony could be moved if it was necessary."

"Damn it!" Yzak growled. "Once again, we come away with nothing."

"Speak for yourselves," a new voice said. Kira looked over to see Roger walking towards them, waving a piece of paper.

"Is that intelligence?" Kira asked.

"Better," Roger said. "It's that ZAFT chick's phone number!"

* * *

The next week passed relatively uneventfully. The PLANT mechanical team worked on repairs for the _Archangel_, the crewmembers relaxed among the locals, and ZAFT reconnaissance teams made further searches for Azathoth.

It was now October 5, CE 72, and the group of friends had gathered at a local restaurant that specialized in, of all things, seafood. Kira, Flay to his right, sat on one side of the table, with Athrun and Cagalli at the other. Lacus sat to Kira's left, and Roger and Luna were seated on Kira's right. Luna was enjoying some off time, and Roger had invited her to dinner.

"It almost makes me want to laugh," Athrun said. "A passionate ZAFT cadet and an extremely patriotic Earth Forces soldier actually going out." Roger swallowed the mouthful of crab cake he had been chewing and spoke.

"Do you _have_ to bring that up on our first date?" he asked, but was stopped by Luna waving her hands dismissively.

"Roger seems like a good guy, so I'm not going to bother him about what country he's from unless it's _really_ important," she said. Roger smiled at this.

"It's not like we're any more normal," Kira added, prompting small laughs from Athrun, Cagalli, Lacus and Flay. Luna took a bite of her dinner and leaned forward.

"So how did you all get to know each other?" she asked. Athrun took the lead on the explanation.

"Kira and I have known each other forever," he said, "at least since we were, what, five?" Kira winced momentarily as an uncomfortable sensation passed through his stomach, but regained his composure and nodded.

"Around five or six," he said. "Athrun is the closest thing I've had to a brother. Anyway, we were friends for about seven years, until Athrun left Copernicus to go back to the PLANTs. We ran into each other again three years later, only we were on opposite sides of the battlefield…" Luna winced at this, and Roger had a similar reaction.

"Dude, that had to _suck_," he said, prompting Athrun to chuckle and Kira to nod.

"We were on the same side by the end of the war," the brunette said. "Athrun met Cagalli in a strange way too." All eyes turned to the other pair now.

"We were stranded on an island together," Cagalli explained somewhat reluctantly.

"That is so sweet!" Luna exclaimed, causing Athrun to laugh and Cagalli to blush.

"Don't make a big deal out of it," she muttered. This only caused Roger to laugh harder.

"Alright," he said, calming down. "What about you two?" Kira shrugged.

"Flay and I went to the same school at Heliopolis," he said. His stomach lurched again, and he decided he'd have to remember to stay away from the chowder. "I…well, I liked her for a while, but I was always too scared to say anything to her."

"I'll vouch for that," Flay said. "Whenever I caught him looking at me, he'd turn away as fast as he could." Everyone laughed at that.

"Anyway," Kira said, "we ended up on the _Archangel_ after Heliopolis was destroyed, and later, well…" Kira trailed off when he noticed Flay shifting uncomfortably in her chair. "I was in pretty bad shape and Flay really helped me out. I probably wouldn't have lived through our time in the desert if it wasn't for her." All eyes turned to Lacus.

"Well," she said, "I was originally betrothed to Athrun, but we…went our separate ways, and I later met Kira when he was injured and was being cared for in the PLANTs. We're all really good friends now." Kira knew that Lacus was leaving a lot of details out, and it seemed Flay knew it too, since her expression darkened with guilt. Kira moved to say something, but was cut off by a sudden burst of static. Everyone's attention shifted to the television set mounted in the corner of the room. After a moment, the static cleared and was replaced with the face of a man in a white ZAFT commander's uniform. He was somewhere in his late thirties or early forties, and had a dark complexion and a goatee.

_"My name is Javier Sabato,"_ the man said. _"I am a soldier of ZAFT."_

"Can we go back to the news?" one of the other customers asked. A waiter attempted to change the station, to no avail.

"This is on every channel," the man said, somewhat nervous now.

_"When I speak of ZAFT,"_ Sabato continued, _"I do not refer to the weak-willed organization that claims to defend your freedom. No, that is not ZAFT. Things, unfortunately, are far worse."_ Uneasy murmurs were now drifting through the crowd.

"This man is with the Advent Faction, I assume" Lacus asked. Her normally serene face had taken on a much harsher countenance as she watched the man on the screen.

"Yeah," Kira said. "The girl on the Joule Team, Shiho, said this guy was probably the leader."

_"The treaty presented at the remains of Junius Seven is a lie, signed by traitors, and does not deserve to be recognized by any just nation! Remember, comrades, why the war began. We Coordinators wished only to live in peace, and in response to our desire, what was done? Coordinators were tormented on Earth, and when we fled to space, the hatred of the Naturals knew no bounds, and they came after us! The Bloody Valentine War was fought for the true freedom of all Coordinators: the freedom from our persecution at the hands of the Naturals!_

_ The men and women who call themselves your leaders hide from this truth. They have abandoned the just cause of the Coordinators; forgotten it, but we have not forgotten! We will fight to ensure that Coordinators have a future, a future where Naturals are no longer free to commit their atrocities!_

_ Before our detractors raise the issue, let no man call us terrorists. Terrorists blow up buses, take hostages and fire on civilians at random. Terrorists shoot down ships carrying food supplies. Terrorists attack civilians with nuclear weapons! To my mind, terrorists have forfeited the right to be considered people at all; the only reason to take them alive is for interrogation. Terrorists are vermin in need of extermination, AND WE ARE THE EXTERMINATORS!_

_ We are the Advent Faction, and as our name implies, we are a new dawn for Coordinators. Those who suffer under the oppression wrought by the Naturals, seek us out. Those who would persecute Coordinators out of envy…you will learn to fear us."_

With that, the transmission ended and the news broadcast from before resumed.

"Son of a bitch," Roger said. Kira moved to stand up, but the sickening feeling rose in his stomach again. He waited, but this time it didn't pass, only growing stronger with each passing second. Kira felt Flay reach over and grasp his shoulder, and then the feeling reached a breaking point, and he bent over and vomited onto the floor.

* * *

**Space station Azathoth**

* * *

"Well, well," Sanford said as Sabato entered the infusion room. "That was quite the speech." Sabato gave a faint smile.

"It was inevitable that this moment would come," he said. "Our enemies must know that they do not stand unchallenged, and the soldiers among ZAFT who may still join us need to know they have that choice." Sanford nodded.

"As for my contribution…" The scientist tossed a small object to Sabato, who caught it and turned it over in his hand, examining it. The object in question was a small vial filled with pale yellow liquid.

"What is it?" the soldier asked. Sanford displayed one of her trademark unnerving smiles.

"It's called Proteus," she said. "It's a virus I built specifically to defeat the Coordinator immune system." Sabato almost laughed.

"That's impossible," he said. "Coordinators don't catch deadly diseases, ever." Sanford merely shook her head.

"That was true back when Coordinators first appeared, but bacteria and especially viruses evolve very fast, and Coordinator illnesses started appearing in the mid fifties or sixties at the latest. Generally speaking, Coordinators who fall seriously ill are quarantined until either a cure is found or they die, and the cases are usually kept quiet, leaving the public with their precious illusion of invulnerability. The fact is that the doctors at the PLANTs aren't as good at treating infectious diseases as Naturals are, since Coordinators shrug off most illnesses with their 'perfect' immune systems." Sabato kept his expression calm and composed, doing his best to hide his disquiet at Sanford's words.

"Why did you engineer this?" he asked.

"Political assassinations, mostly," was the answer. "Infect your target, and he dies perhaps a week and a half later, with little or no evidence of how he caught the disease. As you might suspect, Proteus is one of my best selling creations." Sabato knew that much of the Advent Faction's funding came from the sale of Dr. Sanford's bio-weapons, but he hadn't known precisely what she sold.

"You infected Yamato with this?" he asked.

"Correct," Sanford answered. "When I discovered that the _Archangel_ was on its way to the station, I added a small amount of Proteus to Yamato's intravenous drip. The virus contains DNA coding for upwards of one hundred different protein coats. I can assure you that Yamato's immune system won't be able to keep up." Sabato nodded in understanding.

"Then I believe it is time to make our operation a mobile one," he said. "I'll begin emptying the station and moving out all personnel."

* * *

_**Archangel**_** escape shuttle**

* * *

Flay's hands shook as she tapped at the shuttle's controls, and she took a deep breath, blew it out and did her best to steady herself.

If this worked, Kira would be alright. If it didn't…

* * *

"He has some sort of infection we've never seen before," Dr. Morino said, standing with them all outside the _Archangel_'s infirmary. "He's not contagious; it looks like the disease isn't airborne, but it's also showing no signs of slowing down."

"Well, can't you just make a vaccine?" Cagalli chimed in. Flay nodded, seconding the question. The medical professional shook her head.

"I can't and neither can the PLANT doctors," she said. "We can design a vaccine to neutralize one type of virus based on its protein coat, but we found at least _five_ in the first blood sample we took. By the time I'd shipped a sample to the Martius doctors, there were _two more_ strains in the sample. This thing is either mutating incredibly fast or it has a genetic code like I've never seen before." Flay's heart sank.

"How long does he have?" Athrun asked. Dr. Morino, Kari, shrugged helplessly.

"At the rate the symptoms are progressing now, I'd say three more days; four at the most." Athrun's gaze dropped to the floor, Cagalli gritted her teeth, and it was all Flay could do not to cry.

* * *

Bracing herself for the acceleration, Flay pulled on the shuttle's throttle, jolting back in her seat as the small craft burst from one of the tiny ports on the _Archangel_'s bow. They would notice her departure, and they would follow, but it would take the big ship a while to come fully online, and Flay knew there had to be regulations to be followed before they could leave the dock.

She had a good head start, and she continued accelerating for a while longer, ensuring she was moving at several miles per second before cutting thrust and letting the shuttle move with its own inertia. She paused to look back into the passenger compartment, where Kira lay along one of the seats, sleeping for the moment.

* * *

After Athrun and Cagalli left, Flay walked into the infirmary and sat down beside Kira's bed. He had to be exhausted, but he was still awake, staring at the ceiling. A bedpan lay near the foot of the bed. It was just a precaution, though; Kira had long since emptied his stomach. Flay reached out and put a hand on his forehead, feeling his temperature.

"You should try to sleep," the redhead said. Kira shook his head.

"I can't," he said. He didn't elaborate, and that made Flay even more nervous.

"Please tell me what's wrong," she said, but the Coordinator shook his head.

"I'll be okay," was all he said, and the uncertainty and fear in his voice caused tears to well up in Flay's eyes.

"No secrets, Kira," she said, doing her best to keep her voice calm and level. "I know you want to be strong for me, but you don't have to be." Flay saw Kira's own eyes glistening with tears as he answered.

"I've never been sick before, Flay," he said. "There was that time in the desert, but I've never _really_ been sick…and I…I'm scared. I'm scared of it, Flay." He did start crying then, and Flay pulled him to her, covered his face with gentle kisses, and rocked him back and forth, repeating to him that she loved him, and that everything was going to be alright.

* * *

_Everything __**is**__ going to be alright,_ she thought as she operated the shuttle's communications controls. _I'm not going to let you die, Kira._

Tuning in to the International Rescue Channel, Flay put the headset on and spoke into the microphone.

"This is an escape shuttle off the _Archangel_ calling any Advent Faction forces in range. I have Kira Yamato on board. I repeat: I have Kira Yamato on board." For a moment, there was nothing. The video screen remained blank and nothing but static was audible in the headset. She was opening her mouth to repeat the call when the static cut off and the image of a red-eyed woman, with long black hair and skin almost as pale as the lab coat she wore, appeared on the screen.

"This is Doctor Elizabeth Sanford," the woman said. "You have Yamato aboard that shuttle?" Flay nodded.

"Did you make him sick?" the redhead asked. Sanford's reply was quick and simple.

"Yes," she said, not so much as batting an eye. Anger at the woman boiled up inside of Flay, but she clamped down on it. She had to stay calm for Kira.

"If I bring him to you," Flay said, "can you fix it?"

"Absolutely," Sanford replied. Flay nodded.

"Send me the coordinates."

* * *

**Author's Note: **This fic is not dead, and neither am I! My apologies to everyone who thought this chapter was going to be up yesterday. In my defense, **I** thought it was going to be up yesterday too.

The title of this chapter comes from the title of a _Blue Gender_ episode, although the chapter and the episode are not related.

Before anybody asks, this is not turning into any sort of weird _Gundam SEED/Gundam F91_ crossover. The Crossbone Vanguard inclusion is a reference to another author (Stormturmoil) who is writing a CE Crossbone Vanguard story. This was both a shout-out and a quasi-cameo for his main OC.

In case anyone's curious, the R in GuAIZ R stands for Reinforced.

Those of you who are UC fans will probably have noticed this already, but Sabato's speech is meant to reference the one made by Aiguille Delaz, particularly the "the treaty is a lie" bit. While I started writing this story before I ever saw _Stardust Memory_, when I did watch it I was struck by the similarities between the Delaz Fleet and the Advent Faction, and at least wanted to make a nod to that here.

On a further note, when Dr. Sandford talks about coordinator diseases appearing in the "fifties and sixties", she is talking about the CE 50's and 60's, not about anyone's age.

The last scene was kind of a narrative experiment for me, jumping back and forth between what Flay's doing now, and what happened in sickbay several hours earlier. I hope that wasn't too confusing.

Finally, I apologize if it seems that the story is going back to where it started. Rest assured that is not true. While we are returning to the space station, things are going to be quite different.

Next Chapter: The _Archangel_ heads for Azathoth once more, but this time it's not alone.


	10. To Slay the Beast

Disclaimer: I don't own _Gundam SEED_ or any of its characters.

Chapter 10: To Slay the Beast

* * *

**October 6, CE 72**

* * *

"How far out is she?" Sanford asked.

"Still within visual range of the PLANTs," the nearest technician reported. "We're getting a lot of chatter too. It sounds like ZAFT or the Orb forces will be coming after the shuttle momentarily."

_Predictable enough_, the scientist thought. Since it was just the one shuttle, the girl she'd spoken to had probably left without permission, which was bound to make the people in charge upset.

"The shuttle is going to be overtaken," she said. "Do we have any ships nearby?" The technician nodded.

"Aye, Ma'am; a supply ship crosses paths with the shuttle in about eighty minutes."

"I'm going to get the lab equipment ready," Sanford said. "Tell the supply ship to intercept, and walk the girl through deactivating the shuttle's IFF transponder and emergency beacon."

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Bridge**

* * *

"What's going on?" Roger asked as he entered the Orb ship's nerve center. Athrun and Cagalli were already there, and Captain Ramius was on the line to another ship.

"Track the shuttle's signal as far as you can, Commander Joule, and make sure your mobile suits are ready," the older woman said. "These people give you a reception you won't forget." She finished speaking and put the handset back into her chair's armrest. "Helm, take us out." Roger was jolted slightly as the ship accelerated out of the docking frame.

"Okay then," Roger said. "Let's try this again. What's going on?"

"Flay took one of our escape shuttles out," Athrun said. "She has Kira with her." Roger frowned.

"Where does she think she's going?" he asked. Athrun didn't respond, nor did Cagalli or Captain Ramius, but they all bore the same grim expression. "Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me!" Cagalli shook her head.

"They probably engineered the virus Kira has," the blonde said, "so they probably have the cure." Roger shook his head in disbelief.

"Yeah," he said, "and they're probably going to _kill_ Kira as soon as they get what they need from him. Not to mention that unless I missed something, Flay is a Natural, so they'll probably kill her as soon as possible." As though to make things worse, one of the petty officers, Tonomura if Roger remembered correctly, spoke up from the CIC.

"Captain, the shuttle's IFF signal just disappeared!" he exclaimed. Captain Ramius nodded solemnly.

"Commander Herikawa," she said, "can we estimate a heading based on the information we've got?"

"Aye, Captain," the reply came up from the CIC. "It'll just be a basic transfer orbit, though. It won't be possible to extrapolate course corrections."

"Understood," the captain replied. "It's the only thing we have to go on for now, so use it as best you can." Roger turned to Athrun.

"I take it she's _at least_ going to get court-martialed when we get her back," the Alliance pilot said. "I mean, Flay's a nice girl and all, but Sara and four other soldiers died to rescue the guy she's currently _returning_; we can't just shrug this off." Athrun sighed.

"The situation is more complicated than you know," he said. Roger shook his head in exasperation.

"Why, because she's your friend?" he asked. "I've got nothing against her but come on!" Athrun didn't respond to this, and Roger turned and left the bridge. He understood bending the rules a little out of friendship, but there were limits, and this would put them all at risk. God only knew what was coming next.

A small pink object rolled up to Roger's foot as he tried to leave the bridge, moving its flaps a couple of times.

"Haro! This is a problem!" the machine shouted. Roger's eye twitched.

_The Bouncy Ball from Hell is __**not**__ helping!_

* * *

_**Nelson**_**-class battlecruiser EAS **_**Churchill**_**, Bridge**

* * *

"We'll be entering Martius nearspace in just over ten minutes, Captain," Ensign Abby Myles reported from her station at the helm. Seated in the captain's chair, Captain Roland Harris nodded his approval.

"Alright," he said, shifting his attention. The bridge of a _Nelson_-class ship was a simple, open space, with a semicircular array of crew stations just in front of the windows, and the captain's chair mounted perhaps thirteen feet behind them. A small holographic generator sat just over six feet in front of the captain's chair, and a floor to ceiling combat grid was positioned just behind said chair, but otherwise the space was unobstructed. This allowed the commanding officer to address any member of the bridge crew directly. At the moment, he turned to the last station on the left, where Petty Officer Lewis Packard sat.

"Send laser transmissions to the _Johnson_ and _Carter_; they'll want to have their best diplomatic faces on," Harris said with a wry grin. None of them were particularly looking forward to the inevitable politics of working with ZAFT. "Send one to the _Fitzgerald_ as well."

"Aye, Sir," Packard replied. "Two laser transmissions and one lost cause coming right up." This prompted chuckling from the bridge crew. Commodore Marcus Vaughn, the man in charge of the _Agamemnon_-class carrier _Fitzgerald_, wasn't known for being Coordinator friendly. Rumor had it that he was sympathetic to Blue Cosmos, and Harris suspected that it was only by virtue of his skill on the battlefield that Vaughn had been picked for the mission.

"Transmissions sent," Packard reported. "Messaged ships have confirmed receipt. Are we sending to the Eurasians as well?" Harris shook his head. The four Atlantic Federation ships were being accompanied by a Eurasian force: two _Drake_s and a _Nelson_. While they were ostensibly working with their Atlantic Federation counterparts, the Eurasians had been keeping to themselves thus far. Vaughn and the _Fitzgerald_ were in overall command as far as standard military went, and the commodore would no doubt rein the foreign troops in if they did something out of line, but there wasn't much conversation going on otherwise.

_That's par for the course, though,_ Harris thought._ The Atlantic Federation and Eurasian Federation have never been on terribly good terms._ Harris dropped the thought as the bridge doors slid open and a new officer entered the room.

"I hear we're getting close," the new arrival said. Harris nodded.

"I've had the other Atlantic Federation ships notified," he replied. "The Eurasians seem to prefer operating on their own, so I haven't said anything to them. How are your people doing, Captain Roanoke?"

"No complaints," the other officer said with a shrug. Neo Roanoke was well built and of average height. His truly distinguishing characteristics were his wavy blonde hair, his cheerful personality, which had surprised many of the _Churchill_'s crewmembers, and the imposing, horned helmet-mask that he wore, covering his eyes and the upper half of his face. While Harris wore the standard white and grey Atlantic Federation uniform, Roanoke's grey and black attire marked him as a member of the Special Forces.

"I apologize if your machine isn't being serviced properly," Harris said. "Our deck crew is used to working with 105 Daggers, so your soldiers' custom models are no problem. The mobile armor, on the other hand…" Neo waved the captain's worry off.

"It's understandable," he said. "It's a brand new design, and they seem to be doing a fine job so far." The two soldiers discussed other goings on aboard the ship for the next few minutes, until Abby spoke up again, informing them that they were officially entering ZAFT-controlled space.

"Alright," Harris said, turning to address Packard, "Try hailing Martius. We'll need to get permission to dock and contact our ZAFT liaison." Lewis nodded quickly and spoke into his headset, and a moment later he looked back at Harris and Neo.

"Sir, they're requesting to speak directly to the commanding officer," he said, brow furrowing above his brown eyes. Harris looked over at Neo.

"Captain Roanoke?" he asked, but the masked man shook his head.

"I rank higher, but you're in charge of the ship for now," he said. Harris nodded and looked back to Lewis.

"On screen, Officer Packard." A moment later, the main view screen displayed the face of a green-uniformed ZAFT officer with blue eyes and short brown hair. "This is Captain Roland Harris of the EAS _Churchill_," the Alliance officer said. "You asked to speak to me?"

"Yes," the man on the screen replied. "I'm Chief Security Officer Erin Stroud. Apologies for the atypical contact, but we're still trying to sort out a few things here."

"What do you mean?" Neo asked from his position next to Harris.

"The terrorist organization hacked into our communication servers and broadcast a propaganda video across the PLANTs." Stroud grimaced. "We're still trying to figure out how they did it." Harris's expression darkened.

"Then that makes operations against them an even higher priority," he said. "Officer Stroud, I would like to speak to Ensign Roger Doolittle. He should be stationed aboard the _Archangel_." Stroud hesitated for a moment, as though sorting through the day's confusion.

"We can't get your man on the line, but we can patch you through to the ship you're after." Harris nodded for the officer to do so, and the screen went dark. A moment later, the face of a brunette woman in her late twenties appeared on the display, her lapels bearing the yellow and orange bars of a Captain in the Orb Navy.

"This is Captain Murrue Ramius of the _Archangel_," she said.

"I'm Captain Roland Harris of the _Churchill_. High Command has dispatched our group to render assistance as needed with the Advent Faction threat. Once we dock, my superiors and I would like to speak with you as soon as possible." On the screen, Captain Ramius sighed.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," she said. "We're already underway. If you're not in immediate need of resupply, we can brief you on the details and you can catch up with us." Harris looked over at Captain Roanoke, who simply nodded.

"Alright," Harris said. "Send all transmissions to the _Fitzgerald_; it's the only _Agamemnon_-class in our group." At Ramius's look of confusion, Harris continued. "We contacted you because we were the first ship into communications range, but Commodore Vaughn is in overall command." The _Archangel_'s commander nodded.

"Understood," she said. "Brace yourselves, though. Things have gotten a bit complicated."

* * *

**October 14, CE 72, Space station Azathoth**

* * *

Kira awoke under harsh light. Squinting at the brightness, he tried to move, only to be simultaneously held back by leather restraints on his wrists and a hand on his shoulder. As his eyes adjusted to the light, Kira saw that Flay was seated beside his bed, and that they were in an all-too-familiar hospital-style room. Again he tried to move, but Flay kept her hand on his shoulder to prevent any struggles.

"Stay still," she said. "She said it would take a few more hours before your body returns to normal." Despite her instructions, Kira was breathing faster, his heart beating more rapidly as he realized with growing horror just where he was.

"Flay," he said. "We're not…we're not—,"

"Indeed you are," a third voice added, and Kira slowly turned his head, knowing who he would see, but still dreading it.

Seated in a chair across the room, Elizabeth Sanford spread her hands slightly, as though welcoming him home. Her lips curved into a satisfied smile, and laughter gleamed in her ruby eyes.

"Welcome back, Kira," she said. "We were beginning to think we wouldn't see you again." Kira turned back to face Flay, shaking his head in disbelief.

"You brought me back here?" Flay lowered her head, averting her eyes from Kira's.

"You were going to die," she said quietly. "They were the only ones with a cure."

"It's amazing, really, the things one does for love," Dr. Sanford said. "Going against orders and taking you out here herself, your little Natural lover made things so much easier for us." With that, the scientist stood, smoothing the wrinkles from her lab coat. "I have some small adjustments to make on some of our monitoring equipment, so I must go. The restraints stay on you this time, and the door is locked, in case your girlfriend gets any ideas. Serena will be here to pick you up in due time." Sanford stepped out into the hallway, the door sliding shut behind her. Kira looked at Flay again, frustration rising within him.

"I can't believe this," he said. "I know I was sick, but—,"

"It's more than you know," Flay said, raising her hands to stop him. "I'm—,"

"No!" Kira cut her off this time. "I know how much you care, and I understand why you did it, but there are things far more important than me. These people are taking what was done to me and passing it on to others, to people who will use their power to _destroy lives_. By bringing me back here, you've _helped_ them do that." Flay recoiled at his words, and her lip quivered for a moment. She fell silent after that, leaving anger and sadness hanging in the air.

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Hangar**

* * *

"So," Cagalli said, looking up at the shuttle, "this is a strategy meeting?" Beside her, Athrun nodded.

"They know the general plan," he said, "but the commanding officers need to coordinate on the finer points." The officers in question had just arrived in a standard shuttle off the _Fitzgerald_, which had made stops at the _Churchill_ and the Eurasian ship _Bismarck_. Gathered in the hangar to meet it were Captain Ramius, Commander Herikawa, Athrun and Roger, along with Cagalli herself. Roger, Cagalli noticed, was fidgeting a bit, straightening his uniform as well as his posture.

"What's up with you?" she asked. Roger shrugged.

"Sorry," he said. "I just don't want to meet my CO looking like I just rolled out of bed." The door on the near side of the shuttle's hull opened, and four men, two in white and grey Atlantic Federation uniforms with black shoulder pads denoting officers, one in the blue-tinted Eurasian Federation garb, and the last in a unique black and grey uniform, emerged and made their way down to the deck. The foremost officer, a man in his mid thirties with brown eyes and hair a darker shade of the same color, settled to the ground in front of the _Archangel_ group and saluted.

"Commodore Marcus Vaughn of the _Fitzgerald_, of the Earth Alliance Forces' Sixth Orbital Fleet," he said.

"Captain Roland Harris of the _Churchill_, also of the Sixth Fleet," said the second officer, a man in his sixties with a short, white chin curtain and integrated mustache. Cagalli noticed that this man had an accent distinct from that of his superior officer, marking him as someone from the British Isles as opposed to North America. The third officer, the Eurasian, was a tall man with a shaven head and intimidating gaze, whose goatee and mustache met in a brown circle beard.

"What's up with the facial hair and shaved head?" Cagalli asked, pointing to the Eurasian. "I mean you look like a professional wrestler." Beside her, she heard Athrun chuckle, and she immediately blushed slightly. She hadn't really meant to say it; it had just kind of popped out. The Eurasian smiled, and then proceeded to utterly destroy the air of intimidation he had built up.

"There are two kinds of people in this world who go about beardless," he said, "boys and women, and I am neither one." Turning back to Captain Ramius, he snapped a salute. "Captain Bernard Gruber of the _Bismarck_, of the Third Orbital Fleet." Murrue returned the salute.

As Cagalli focused on the last man, she lost some of her good humor, for the upper half of this officer's face was covered with a sort of decorative helmet, sporting vertical projections that looked eerily like demonic horns. The appearance was creepy enough, and the fact that the last masked man Cagalli had heard of had tried to kill the _entire human species_ only made things worse. She took a quick glance at Athrun, and the look on his face indicated he felt the same way.

Before either of them could say anything, however, a trio of faces appeared at the shuttle door. Two boys and a girl, all apparently around the age of sixteen or seventeen, were looking out over the proceedings, their faces expressing curiosity and, at least with the boys, a good amount of appreciation for the relatively large space of the _Archangel_'s hangar. The girl, on the other hand, a blonde with wavy hair that floated just above her shoulders, looked different. Cagalli couldn't quite pin down her expression, but guessed that the teen was weighing her situation, unsure of whether this place was good or bad. At least, she looked that way until her gaze fell upon their group, at which point her violet eyes brightened and her face broke out in a pleased, open-mouthed smile.

"Roger!" she cried out with joyful surprise, planting her feet on the shuttle's doorframe and launching herself at him. Roger grinned in response.

"Stellar!" he said, catching her in a fierce bear hug. "How's my baby sister?" The blonde giggled. Cagalli's eyes bugged out at that last bit.

"Stellar made new friends!" the blonde happily reported. "Roger has to meet Stellar's new friends!"

"Hold up, hold up!" Cagalli broke in, raising her hands for silence. Roger gave her a puzzled look, and the blonde, Stellar, gave her the same tentative expression she had given the hangar itself from the shuttle just moments ago. "This is your little sister?" Roger chuckled.

"We're not really related," he explained. "I just tend to think of her as my little sister. You remember a while back when I said I used to practice hand to hand with a girl named Loussier?" Cagalli nodded. "Well, this is her: Stellar Loussier." Cagalli didn't get to ask any further questions, since the masked man chose that moment to walk over to her and offer his hand.

"Captain Neo Roanoke," he said. "It's an honor to meet you, Commodore Athha." Cagalli didn't reply. Indeed, her mouth hung open in surprise, and Athrun seemed to have been left speechless as well. "What?" the captain asked. "Was it something I said?" He turned to look at the other officers, and saw Captain Ramius as white as a sheet, her eyes wide and one hand over her mouth.

"Is everything alright, Captain Ramius?" Captain Harris asked. Murrue opened her mouth to speak, and then shut it. Finally, she composed herself enough for a short reply.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I need to be excused for a while. Commander Herikawa will brief you." With that, the brunette turned about and headed for the nearest exit. Captain Roanoke, puzzled as ever, looked at Commander Herikawa.

"What was that about?" The Orb officer shook his head.

"I'm not entirely sure myself."

"It's your voice," Cagalli finally said. "You sound like someone who used to serve on this ship, and I mean _exactly_ like him. Captain Ramius and he were very close, but he died at Jachin Due." The masked officer nodded in understanding.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I certainly didn't mean to bring up painful memories." While the officers had been talking, the other two teens had made their way down from the shuttle, settling down near Stellar. Both boys were studies in strange colors, one with short green hair and yellow eyes reminiscent of Roger's, and the other with blue hair that swooped out around the level of his sapphire eyes. "These are the soldiers under my command: Sting Oakley," he indicated the green-haired boy, who gave Cagalli an informal salute, "Auel Neider," the blue-haired youth waved, "and Stellar Loussier." The blonde nodded and made a small, happy "Mm!" of agreement. Cagalli frowned.

"No offense," Athrun added, "but you don't look quite like soldiers." The teens all wore the OMNI Enforcer volunteer uniform, but in a somewhat lax fashion. The green-haired boy, Sting, left his blue coat open, revealing the red shirt he wore underneath. Auel had the coat sleeves rolled up, and an orange shirt underneath, which gaped open down to his navel. He also wore teal pants instead of the standard beige ones. Stellar wore a blue skirt and white, knee-high boots, and the shoulders of her pink uniform coat had been cut off, revealing shapely upper arms.

"Yeah…" Cagalli said. "That's not standard issue." Roger waved the comment off.

"Extended aren't standard military," he explained. "So _you guys_ are the Special Forces team Command sent us." Captain Roanoke nodded.

"The 81st Autonomous Mobile Group," he said. "We're operating from the _Churchill_ for the time being." Roger frowned.

"Really?" he asked. Cagalli didn't quite get it.

"What's wrong with the ship they're on?" she asked. The masked man turned to address her.

"Over the last year, the Alliance has worked to retrofit _Nelson-_ and _Drake_-class ships with linear catapults, and we've also changed the _Agamemnon_ class. Instead of two deck-edge catapults, it now has one centerline catapult. It lets mobile suits launch standing up so they can equip Striker packs. The ship that's hosting us, the _Churchill_, is a _Nelson_, with deck-edge catapults, so our mobile suits have to launch prone and can't equip mission packs. So, normally, we'd be flying off the _Fitzgerald_, but that ship's taken." Roger frowned.

"By what?" he asked. A few meters away, Captain Harris stopped listening to Vaughn and Herikawa's tactical discussion and addressed the group.

"The _Fitzgerald_ is currently housing the Delphinus Squadron. It's a test group piloting TS-MA2 Moebiuses." Cagalli almost laughed.

"Moebiuses?" she said. "The things ZAFT used for target practice during the war?" Harris nodded.

"The possibility was raised that the ineffectiveness of the Moebius may not be the fault of the machine, but rather that of the pilot and OS. Most Moebius pilots were former fighter pilots from Earth, and the machine's OS was designed around a jet fighter model. The thought is that even though the Moebius is built to operate in a zero-gravity vacuum, it was still acting as though it was limited by both gravity and aerodynamics, rather than performing the maneuvers the machine was really capable of. Our ZAFT adversaries, having spent most if not all of their lives in space, were not hampered by such mental restrictions, and flew their mobile suits as true zero-gravity vehicles. Anyway, Command drew up a list of some of the best pilots, had the OS revamped and designed a new training curriculum so that—,"

"Oh, God," Roger groaned. "Simpson's on this team, isn't he?" Captain Harris chuckled.

"Well, at least we finally got him off the _Churchill_," the older man said.

"Who are you guys talking about?" Athrun asked. Roger shook his head.

"Trust me," the Alliance pilot said, "you do _not_ want to know."

"Anyway," Harris picked up, "the team has managed to improve the numbers quite a bit. It used to take an average of five Moebiuses to destroy a single GINN. The Delphinus boys have it down to just _two_ in practice runs with Strike Daggers and captured GINNs. We're looking at a contract with Adukurf Mechano-Industries if everything goes well."

"My personal mobile armor is also a part of that program," Captain Roanoke added. "It's essentially an upgrade of the Moebius Zero." He didn't elaborate any further, and the side conversation seemed to end there. Roanoke and Harris rejoined Gruber, Vaughn and Herikawa, Stellar grabbed Roger by the hand and excitedly towed him over to meet Sting and Auel, and Athrun approached Cagalli.

"You think they can handle this?" he asked, indicating the three teenagers talking to Roger. Cagalli shrugged.

"If what Roger said about them is true, then they should be okay," she responded, "but I don't know. I guess we'll see when we get there."

* * *

While the others went about their business in the hangar, Captain Murrue Ramius stood in a hall not too far away, leaning against the wall.

"It's not him," she said, her voice far less steady than it should have been. "It can't be him." Her eyes grow hot with tears, and Murrue reached up and brushed them away as quickly as she could. She had _seen_ the Strike explode, and she knew no one could have survived, not even Mu.

But she wanted to believe. It was hard to wake up at night and simply realize that there was no one to talk to; that Mu wasn't going to be there to make some joke to try and cheer her up. It might not have been a _good_ joke, but the fact that he tried was what had made it so special. Murrue wanted to think that maybe, just maybe, there was hope. She wanted it so badly.

"But it's impossible," she repeated to herself. "Impossible." The captain released a shuddering breath, wiped her eyes one more time, and then moved toward the hangar again.

* * *

**Space station Azathoth**

* * *

The door to Kira's room hissed open, and Serena Ridley stepped in, quickly brushing some of her short brown hair out of her eyes. When she noticed Flay, the medical technician opened her mouth as if to say something, and then shut it. Even though she said nothing, it seemed to Kira that she was a little hurt to see his girlfriend in the room. After only a moment, however, Serena moved to the bed and began undoing Kira's restraints.

"I think I can get you to the elevator without them noticing," she said, speaking quietly and not looking at Kira, probably to hide the fact that she was talking to him from the security camera in the room. "The shuttle is still down in the docking bay. There should be extra normal suits in a room pretty close to the airlock; I think it's the second door on the left."

"Alright," Kira said, standing up.

"What about you?" Flay asked. Serena hesitated for a moment.

"Can I come with you?" she asked. "I keep thinking it'll be dangerous for me to stay here." Kira nodded.

"I don't see a problem with it," he said.

"Okay," Serena said, smiling a little. "Now, let's go." With that, the trio left the room, heading to the right along one of the curving hallways. They passed a pair of guards, and for a moment, Kira thought they might be found out, but Serena simply showed the armed men her ID badge, and they nodded and let them pass. After another few minutes, they arrived at the elevator, and Serena pushed the call button. Kira looked over at Flay, who was still sullen after their exchange in the holding room. While he couldn't bring himself to believe that what she had done was right, he didn't want her to think he hated her, so he reached over and took her hand. Flay looked over at him, and Kira gave her a reassuring smile. The elevator doors opened, and Kira's smile disappeared.

Standing in the elevator, pointing a pistol at them, was the blue-haired girl from the kidnapping group.

"Going somewhere?" she asked. Serena stumbled over herself, searching for words, and Flay's grip on Kira's hand tightened to an almost painful degree.

"You…" she said, catching the kidnapper's attention. The woman's golden eyes fixed on Flay, and she smiled mirthfully.

"Red!" she exclaimed, as though seeing an old friend. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" She looked back at Serena. "The Doc figured you'd try something like this." Flay moved to the left slightly, and without taking her eyes off Serena, the blue-haired woman trained the pistol on her in the blink of an eye. "Don't even think about it, Red. This one's a real handgun, bullets and all, and I could kill you before you made it two meters. Now, come with me."

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Bridge**

* * *

"Is everything alright here?" Lacus asked Murrue, floating over to the captain's chair and grasping an arm to steady herself. Captain Ramius nodded.

"Commodore Vaughn requested that the Delphinus Squadron be allowed to engage older model mobile suits, like GINNs, but other than that, they agreed to the plan we'd already worked out with the Joule team." The pink-haired girl nodded.

"Is Captain Waltfeld participating in this operation?" she asked.

"Yes," Murrue replied. "He's on the _Voltaire_ now, acting as a co-commander on the Joule team." After a moment, the Coordinator touched on a more personal topic.

"Are you alright?" she asked. "I heard that one of the Earth Forces officers bore a resemblance to Mu." Murrue sighed, looking at the floor for a moment.

"I was…unsettled," she admitted with an apologetic smile. "There's nothing that can be done, though. It's something I have to deal with on my own." After a moment of silence, the older woman grinned, switching topics. "You might be interested to know that your present for Kira is aboard." Lacus smiled slightly.

"Do you think he'll be alright with it?" she asked. "It might be a bit much to ask of him after all he's been through." Murrue shook her head at that.

"In my experience, Kira is most frustrated when he can do nothing to help his friends. You're just allowing him to do that." Lacus nodded in acceptance, and the two women relinquished themselves to silence for a while, watching the stars outside the windows.

* * *

**Space station Azathoth**

* * *

A little less than ten minutes after being intercepted at the elevator, Kira was strapped to an examining table in a fairly nondescript room. Electrodes and a small MRI setup were arranged about his head, another set of electrodes monitored his heartbeat, and a bizarre device was connected to his arm. A needle had been inserted into one of his veins, and blood flowed from that needle through the tube, through a monitoring device of some sort, and down another tube back into his arm. Dr. Sanford currently stood beside this machine, and after pressing a few buttons and bringing the device online with a soft hum, she turned to address her captive.

"Alright, Kira," she said. "I have multiple samples of your genome, and the vast majority of your traits can now be successfully implanted into others. However, there are some things that the scientific community still doesn't fully understand. In this case, I'm referring to the SEED factor. In order to find out exactly what initiates it, I'll be monitoring your cerebral activity, as well as the hormone levels in your bloodstream, the neurotransmitters in your cerebrospinal fluid and the expression of your genes as observed by a microarray. All you have to do is _activate_ your SEED factor." Kira stared at her for a moment.

"It doesn't work like that," he said. "The factor just turns on and off depending on things happening around me. The scientist focused her gaze, and that unpleasant sensation returned: the feeling that she could see his innermost secrets.

"You're lying," she replied coolly, and for a moment Kira had the horrifying thought that she really _could_ see into his mind. However, Sanford quickly dispelled that notion. "I have little data on the genetic expression of the SEED factor, but I know quite a bit about its use, and it's come to my attention that you, along with Athrun Zala at the very least, are capable of activating your factor consciously. I'm merely requesting that you do that." After a moment, Kira responded.

"I'm not helping you," he said defiantly. "I know what you're going to do with that information." Sanford smiled.

"Oh, I doubt you know what I'm doing, but that's irrelevant." As if to punctuate her statement, Dr. Sanford pulled a small remote control from her pocket and turned on a video screen mounted on the far wall. In spite of his distance from the screen, Kira could clearly see Flay and Serena standing in front of a closed door. The blue-haired soldier stood behind them, keeping her weapon at the ready. Reaching over to a desk beside her, Sanford picked up a radio and pushed the "speak" button. "Miss Cromwell, can you hear me?" On the screen, the armed woman picked up a communicator of her own.

_"Loud and clear, Doctor Sanford,"_ she replied. Sanford turned back to Kira.

"You're familiar with the CS-M25 Eviscerators," she said to him. "I created them by recombining human DNA with that of _Tursiops truncatus, Isurus oxyrinchus_ and _Pteropus vampyrus_, along with a few other species." Kira said nothing. "Due to their human and dolphin genetic heritage, they are highly intelligent, and like any intelligent creature, they require entertainment, generally in the form of challenging hunts. We remodeled what used to be a mess hall as a maze to accommodate them."

"No," Kira breathed. "You're not—."

"Should you decide _not_ to activate your SEED factor and provide me with the information I need, I need only say the word, and your lover and my traitorous subordinate will be ushered into the maze." Kira couldn't respond for a moment, his mind too busy processing just what would happen to Flay and Serena if…

"I—," he started, and then hesitated, thinking of what could happen to the world if people like the Advent Faction gained full access to Ultimate Coordinator abilities.

After a few seconds had passed, Sanford frowned, brought the communicator up and opened her mouth to speak.

"I'll do it!" he almost shouted, cutting Sanford off before she could speak. The scientist smiled, turned off the video screen and took the radio away from her mouth. As she watched, Kira closed his eyes and reached back into his mind, building tension within himself. When it reached a high enough level, he "flexed" mentally, almost like opening a door within his mind. All the pent up tension discharged along Kira's nervous system, his pupils contracting to pinpoints, and a purple seed exploded behind his eyes, expelling a ring of crimson light.

_They'll have their data,_ Kira thought. _When they decide to use it, I'll just have to be there to stop them._

"Excellent," Dr. Sanford replied, and stepped out of the room. Kira thought of all of his friends, of Athrun, Cagalli and Captain Ramius, and he wondered what they were doing now.

_Whatever it is, you guys had better do it fast._

* * *

Flay looked over at the other girl, Serena, as they stood outside the door. She wasn't sure why they were here, but she could see Serena breathing faster and trembling slightly. She knew this place, and it scared her, and that knowledge alone scared Flay.

"Doctor Sanford?" their captor spoke into the radio. "Doctor, did it work?"

_"Yes it did,"_ the doctor's voice emerged from the communicator. _"This should be all the data I need."_

"So, what should I do with these two?" the blue-haired soldier asked.

_"Send them into the maze."_ Serena drew a shuddering breath, holding one hand over her mouth, her green eyes beginning to tear up. _"I suppose you could shoot them, but that would be a waste of two bullets and a good amount of viable protein. Besides, the Eviscerators need their recreation time."_ Their captor shrugged.

"Okay," she said, clipping the radio back onto her belt and pressing a button on the wall. The door in front of them slid open, and the soldier grabbed Serena by the arm.

"No!" Serena pleaded. "Please don't do this." Unsympathetic, the blue-haired woman shoved Serena through the open door, the force sending her sprawling on the metal floor beyond.

"Come on," the soldier ordered, pointing her handgun at Flay. Cringing slightly at having the weapon pointed at her, realizing that she would be given no choice, Flay stepped through the door. As she did so, the young woman on the floor decided that being shot was preferable to whatever was in here. Getting to her feet, Serena lunged for the exit, but it was too late, and the door slid shut just as she reached it. The brunette pounded on the door, crying openly now.

"Please!" she called out through her sobs. "Please don't leave us in here!" She pounded her fists on the cold metal again, and then sank to the floor, shuddering as she cried. Just looking at her in this state had Flay breathing unevenly, on the verge of desperate tears herself.

_Tick-tick_.

"Nooooo…" Serena whined, turning with wide eyes to face into the room. Her heart hammering, Flay followed her gaze.

The single light on above the door illuminated a small portion of the room. Low walls, like what you might see around office cubicles, gave form to the space, creating branching, twisting hallways inside of the larger room. They were at a T-intersection. Halls led away to the left and right, and a third stretched off into darkness in front of them.

Something was coming from the hall directly ahead of them, and as it stepped into the light, Flay backed away from it in instinctive, skin-crawling fear. Her back hit the closed door, and still she tried to get further away from it, soft whimpering sounds emerging from her throat of their own accord.

The thing emerging from the shadows might have been some nightmarish form of cave life, or a picture of a demon from some Sunday school book designed to frighten children. It was vaguely humanoid, with two arms, two legs and a head, but that was about it. It was big; it would have stood well over six feet tall when upright, but it was hunched over, walking on all fours with a patient, powerful gait, and its skin was white as death. The thing's hands had two fingers and an opposable thumb free, all tipped with scythe-like claws. The two outermost fingers on each hand were lengthened and integrated into the membrane of an immense bat-like wing. The monster's wings were tucked away now, wing fingers folded back against the arm and the slack in the membranes pulled tight by elastic tendons so as not to hinder movement, but if they had been fully spread, Flay imagined they would have stretched twelve or thirteen feet. A serpentine tail swept through the darkness behind the creature, its dexterous length ending in a diamond-shaped tip, from which projected two bone spikes seven or eight inches long.

But the worst thing about the abomination was its head. The vaguely cetacean visage was completely eyeless, a featureless white plain sloping forward and down toward a mouth with a dolphin's grin.

The lips on that grinning mouth abruptly peeled back, revealing row after row of teeth like curving needles, and Flay screamed, the fear within her reaching a state of utter panic, and the creature answered her, throwing open its jaws and releasing a keening shriek that could have come from Hell itself.

And then the lights went out.

* * *

_**Archangel**_**, Bridge**

* * *

An observer would have noted that silence was the dominant characteristic of the Orb warship. The vessel made no sound from the outside, although such was the normal state in a vacuum, and conditions inside were similar. There were the usual noises: the whirring of ventilation fans, the sound of footsteps as people went about their jobs, and in the aft section of the ship, the low, pulsing thunder of the fusion reactor. However, the ship's crew was quiet. On the bridge this was even more prominent. There was none of the lighter conversation that normally served to keep the daily routine from getting too boring. The captain and her crew sat mute at their stations. Yet this silence was not empty. Rather, it was the calm before a storm; the wait before a momentous event.

And then, suddenly, the wait was over.

"I've got something!" Jackie Tonomura called out. Murrue leaned forward in her chair. After a moment, Tonomura nodded to himself and looked back at her. "It's the beacon." Murrue nodded in acknowledgment. She looked back at the petty officer manning the communications console.

"Send word to the Earth Forces ships and the Joule team," she ordered. "Coordinate our data and use it to triangulate on the signal's point of origin." A few seconds later, Tonomura spoke up again.

"We've got it," he said. "The beacon's transmitting from a point in the debris belt about nine hundred kilometers from our current position." The signal's point of origin flashed into existence on a map on one of the overhead screens.

"Ensign Neumann?" Murrue asked, looking at her helmsman.

"We can be there in about forty-five minutes," he replied. "We're going to have to pull about five gees for five seconds to get up to speed though." Murrue nodded.

"Understood," she said. "All hands, brace for acceleration. Once acceleration ceases, go to Level Two battle stations. Operation Perseus commences now."

Roger held onto the armrests of his cockpit seat as the _Archangel_ fired its massive thrusters. As a pilot, he'd been trained to handle g-forces much higher than this, but it was still an uncomfortable sensation. Once the pressure of the acceleration eased, he got out of his seat and leaned forward, out of the Sword Calamity's cockpit. On either side of his mobile suit, Cagalli and Athrun were working on fine adjustments to their own machines.

"What's up with the burn?" Roger called out. "What's Operation Perseus?"

"We're getting our machines fueled and armed," Cagalli answered as she climbed out of the Strike Rouge. "After that, we're going to get my brother back."

* * *

**Azathoth**

* * *

Flay came to another wall. She couldn't stop to think about which direction to go, so she went right, acting completely on impulse. In the darkness, her searching hands encountered another wall.

_No!_

Turning around, she lost her balance and fell, landing hard on the metal floor. She started to get up, but froze when she felt something on her face.

Air. Hot and sour-smelling. A few drops of warm liquid fell on the back of her left hand, and panic spread its icy tendrils through her body as she realized that the creature was right in front of her, _breathing_ on her, its drool falling on her hand.

Flay squealed in terror and scrambled backwards as a loud hiss erupted from the demon in front of her. A twisted hand flashed out at her as she struggled to her feet, talons carving white-hot lines of pain across her shoulder. The blow knocked Flay back onto the floor, and she screamed and lashed out with her leg, feeling her foot connect with thick, rubbery flesh. Stumbling to her feet, she rushed forward through the darkness, not caring where she was going; only that she was moving away from the aberration.

Coming to another intersection, Flay almost stopped, but the decision of which way to go was made for her, as another hellish shriek blasted through the darkness, coming from the hall to her right. Pushing against the near wall with her hand, Flay went left, and then something hit her hard, knocking her to the floor as fingers clamped over her mouth.

"It's me!" the new arrival said. Flay recognized the voice of the other girl, Serena, and stopped trying to claw her way free. After a moment, she managed to catch her breath and calm down somewhat, but her senses remained hyper-alert, trying desperately to pierce the darkness around her.

"Wh-where do we go?" Flay whispered nervously.

"I don't know…" Serena said, trying to keep her shuddering breaths as low and inaudible as possible.

_Tick-tick._

The clicking footsteps nearly caused Flay to jump, and the action aggravated her wounds, causing her to gasp and clutch her shoulder. A low growl sounded in the dark, emanating from the same direction the footsteps had come from, and both girls shrank from it, feeling terrifyingly exposed.

"Come on!" Flay forced out. "You work here. Isn't there any other way out of this room?" In the darkness, she could see Serena bite her lip, struggling to think quickly.

"Well, this wasn't always our station," the brunette whispered. "This room used to be a mess hall, and I think it originally had two entrances. We need to go toward…" she hesitated, and then pointed off into the dark "…that wall." Slowly, Serena rose to her feet, and Flay followed. A moment after their trek started, Flay heard a soft, sliding noise coming from behind them. She tensed, inhaling sharply.

"What about _them?_" she asked, not sure if Serena could even hear her. The other girl leaned back, struggling to talk between nervous, ragged breaths.

"The Eviscerators echolocate," she said. "They see with sound."

"So, if we're really quiet, they might not find us?" Flay asked hopefully. Serena nodded.

"If they have a line of sight, they'll still see us, but being quiet can't hurt," she said. "Okay, we're going to go through that intersection and head left. I think that'll get us to the wall." With no further speech, the two young women began to move.

To Flay, each second seemed an eternity, each step seemed horribly loud. But slowly, surely, they began to make progress. They moved six feet, then ten, and nothing emerged from the darkness. They passed the intersection, and a few moments later, the wall they sought materialized from the shadows.

Still no signs of their monstrous pursuers.

Serena looked back at Flay, her face barely visible in the dark, and gave a reassuring smile. They were almost there. Through her fear, Flay felt a small but definite swell of hope. Maybe they could do this.

Then something moved in the tenebrous space ahead of Serena: a shape, ghost white against black, whose face split apart into rows of dagger teeth.

The creature screamed, the sound jangling Flay's nerves and sending her shrinking back. The girls turned to run, only to be confronted with a second shrieking abomination rushing at them from back the way they'd come, claws outstretched. For a moment, Flay lost all sense of direction as the space around her was filled with ripping claws and flailing limbs. One of the creatures crashed into her, sending her spinning to the ground, and Flay scrambled away on all fours, not stopping until she'd backed into a small alcove.

Suddenly, the maze fell completely silent again. The creatures had vanished, and the darkness seemed empty, but she knew they were out there; she knew the demons were crouching in every shadow, grinning their razor blade grins. They could have had the girls at any time, but they wouldn't be satisfied with that. No, these monsters were having _fun_, playing with their food like a cat that had pinned some small animal.

Flay started to move forward, maybe even to leave her sheltered nook, when the silence was pierced by screaming. This wasn't the shrill cry of the monsters; it was Serena. The sound was almost worse than seeing one of the monsters, seeming to permeate Flay's entire body and fill it with panic. The redhead stumbled back against the rear wall of the alcove, wrapping her arms around her knees and curling into a ball. Less than a second later, the screams were cut off, and silence reigned once more.

* * *

"File this with my other work," Elizabeth Sanford instructed, passing the data card holding the Yamato boy's medical data over to a technician.

"What about the captive?" he asked. Sanford mulled it over for a moment.

"We'll load him onto a shuttle and send him to one of the—," she was cut off as Squadron Commander Sabato came jogging down the hall, no small amount of anger evident on his face.

"We have a very serious problem," he said. "Approximately five minutes ago, we discovered that the shuttle the boy arrived on was broadcasting a signal."

"_What?_" Sanford asked, her mood souring.

* * *

"After Flay left with Kira, she activated a countdown on her shuttle," Athrun stated, emerging from his machine. "When the countdown reached zero, a beacon on the shuttle started transmitting a pulse on a predetermined frequency. Given N-Jammer interference, it wouldn't reach far, but the plan was that if we were close enough, we could use multiple ships to triangulate its position and locate the Advent Faction's base." Roger paused for a moment.

"When did you come up with this plan?" he asked hesitantly.

"We came up with it just after finding out Kira was sick," Cagalli put in from her position, floating just beside the Strike Rouge. "We didn't want to hand him back to those terrorists, but we couldn't just fly in there with the _Archangel_. We had to make them think Kira was being brought to them with no strings attached."

* * *

"How did you fail to notice this before now?" Sanford asked, as calmly as she could.

"Do _not_ take the accusatory tone with me, Doctor," the former ZAFT officer snapped. "The signal was on a frequency well outside the spread normally used for communications. Besides, your people gave me the distinct impression that Yamato's female friend brought him to us on her own."

* * *

"Flay volunteered," Athrun added, his voice quiet enough that Roger almost didn't hear him. "She did a very brave thing taking Kira out there."

"And _that_ was why you shouldn't have jumped to conclusions when we told you the situation was complicated!" Cagalli stated with some amount of fire in her voice.

"Well _excuse me_, Princess," Roger shot back. "Maybe somebody could have let me in on this."

"We wanted to keep this as secret as possible," Athrun replied. "The Advent Faction would likely be listening in on general transmissions, so the docking authorities' reactions had to be genuine. Yzak was informed before we left, and he used a coded transmission to explain it to the National Defense Committee after we launched. We gave the Alliance officers a summary when we met them in the hangar."

"And I didn't notice it then because…?" Roger asked.

"You weren't listening," Athrun replied. Roger grimaced.

"I guess that works," he said.

* * *

"How long do we have before the Orb ship arrives?" Sanford asked. Sabato gritted his teeth.

"I can't be sure, but it will be soon," he said. "I'm stepping up our evacuation procedures, but I'll probably have to mobilize the MS forces." Sanford nodded, sighing.

"I'll have my people work as quickly as possible." She turned to the technician she had been speaking to earlier. "Go to the control room and sound the ultrasonic chime; call the Eviscerators back to their pens. We'll move them onto the shuttle as soon as possible."

* * *

They were moving again.

Flay had been sitting in the alcove for a while now, trying to stay calm. No matter how she tried, though, she couldn't think of a way out. The door Serena and she had sought was, in fact, right across from her little shelter. It looked so easy; she would have to run six feet at most.

But it would be six feet of open space, and _they_ were out there, waiting for her to move. If she ran, they would be on her in an instant, but if she stayed where she was, they would find her anyway. When they came for her, she could fight, but that was hopeless. Flay had no combat training; she'd last less than five seconds.

_This room used to be a mess hall._

Flay's eyes opened. If this room had been built for animal training, then it should be empty save for the maze itself. But if it wasn't…

_They see with sound_, Serena's words repeated in her mind. Slowly, Flay began to formulate a plan. Reaching down, she untied first one shoe, then the other.

_Tick-tick_.

The noise came from both sides of the alcove. Flay was out of time. Shifting into a crouch, she hefted one shoe back.

"Alright," she muttered, and threw the shoe out from the alcove. She wasn't aiming at the door; the projectile hit the wall beside it and fell to the floor, but it still hadn't hit what Flay was hoping for. There was an abrupt scuffling as the creatures in the darkness retreated from the thrown shoe, then one pale hand snaked out and picked it off the floor. The monster's misshapen head came into view, and it seemed to stare at the foreign object for a moment, before releasing a truncated hiss that could almost have been a laugh. Dropping the shoe, the Eviscerator began moving into the alcove. With an involuntary cry, Flay threw the second shoe, and hit what she was aiming for: the small box beside the door.

The piercingly loud blare of the fire alarm crashed over the room like a tidal wave. The alarm was painful, but hearing the monsters shriek in pain and confusion under the sonic assault more than made up for it. As the pale creatures shrank back, Flay ran forward and slammed against the door. To her relief, it opened readily, and she burst from the darkness into a lit hallway. She took a moment to catch her breath, and then began looking for a sign or some other way to navigate the station.

_Come on, there has to be a way to find the shuttles, or to find where they're keeping Kira or—_

The door burst open behind her.

Flay turned around slowly, to find that one of the creatures had left the maze. It shook its head, as though to clear it, and then fixed its eyeless gaze on Flay and snarled, its lips and teeth smeared with blood.

_Please, God, no._

Before the creature could charge, however, something stopped it. It cocked its head to one side, as though somehow listening to something in spite of the alarm, and after a moment's hesitation, it returned to the maze.

Flay wasn't going to count on another run of luck like that, and she started off down the hall. She would look for a guide of some sort later.

* * *

"We have a fire alarm on Level Ten!" a technician called out.

"What about the Eviscerators?" Sanford asked. They were back in the control room now, and the tech had but to hit a few keys at his console.

"They've returned and are being transported to the shuttles as we speak, Ma'am."

"Have a security team perform at least a cursory sweep of the area," Doctor Sanford returned. Sabato, however, felt otherwise.

"Belay that order," he barked, turning to Sanford now. "Why should I be wasting men at this time?" Elizabeth sighed in frustration.

"The fire alarm will have unlocked all doors on that level, so the Natural girl and my former subordinate could be loose down there." Sabato grimaced. The Natural meant nothing, but a former member of Sanford's team was a potential intelligence breach.

"I'll have a three man team search the area, but we can't spare many. That damned Orb warship will be here, soon."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Abby Miles, helmsman (helmswoman?) of the _Churchill_, is named as a tribute to Abby Maitland, a character from the UK series _Primeval_. As for the ships, I shouldn't have to explain the _Churchill_'s name, but the _Carter_ is named after US president Jimmy Carter, and the _Johnson_ is named after either Lyndon Johnson or Andrew Johnson (I never really decided). The _Bismark_ is named after Otto von Bismarck, Prussia's resident Magnificent Bastard. The _Fitzgerald_, on the other hand, is named after a high-ranking Army officer, although I can't remember who. For those of you who are worried that we didn't meet the Joule team this chapter, they will be introduced in the next, along with some of the _Churchill_'s mobile suit pilots.

As I said in an earlier chapter, I had a scene planned where we get to see exactly what an Eviscerator looks like, and the maze sequence was it. While it may not be obvious, they owe some of their visual design to the Mass Production Evangelions from _The End of Evangelion_, particularly their eyeless nature, white coloration and wings (although Eviscerators don't have the physically impossible disappearing wings the MP Evas did). The twin barbs at the end of an Eviscerator's tail are modeled on the twin-pronged spears the MP Evas use with such brutal efficiency.

Next Chapter: The Second Battle of Azathoth


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